Tales of the Amber Vipers

by Mattwho81

In the time of the Dark Imperium a new Brotherhood arose, fighting in the forgotten reaches of the galaxy. Fresh and newborn they must walk a perilous line between honour and survival and the decision as to whether they shall be known for their nobility or callousness has yet to be determined. These are the stories of the Amber Vipers.

76. Chapter 76

Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 76

The village was gone, lost to the crawling horror that consumed the land. Whole swathes of the forest were gone, dissolving into the black filth that pushed ever onwards. A black cloud hung over the lands, a malevolent fog of toxic spores that cast eternal night under its mass. Forest, mountain and glade, all were covered by the rot without exception. Tendrils of dark corruption ran ahead of that cloud, spreading the taint further and further. It had already devoured everything within a day's flying of the Vale of Midnight Tears and it was growing faster.

Elhyn looked upon the rot and knew his life as he had known it was over. He was currently standing on the far side of the Gynsmere river, the vast canyon carved into the land forming a natural barrier to the spreading corruption. The far side was already covered in the taint, the black veins pushing down one side of the canyon to touch the frothing waters. The river was stained black by its festering aura, carrying the taint downstream but the swift-moving waters prevented the mould reaching the other side. Elhyn was under no illusion that this would be permanent, the corruption was too insidious to be denied, sooner or later it would find a way across and keep spreading. But for today it served as a rallying point for the defeated survivors. They sat upon the ground and wept for their losses: their homes, their loved ones and the souls of their ancestors, torn from eternal rest and devoured by She Who Thirsts.

Elhyn gazed upon the lands he had known all his life and did not recognise them. The vast forests were gone, exposing more sky than he had ever seen at once. The glades where he had flown and hunted had been devoured; the herds consumed and even predators and crystal spiders had been razed to nothingness. The village of the Wind-dancers had been taken too, all his Kinband's homes falling to the corruption. Few had escaped the destruction, only those able to reach their Drakes in time to flee and those who had fled the battle. Of a proud and noble people almost nothing remained, a fraction of their numbers had survived the coming of the Mon-Keigh to Athelling, leaving a broken and devastated world in their wake. Of the other Kinbands there were fewer yet, the Swift-runners, Stone-hearts and Bloody-talons being too slow to evacuate. Their Longstriders, Leviatatus and Chellonians being overrun by the corruption, even as they ran for their lives. Only the Kraken-riders had managed to save any decent amount of their people, flying straight from the growing tide of horror and not looking back.

Elhyn had looked for the Dynasts but Galahyn, Gonredil and Olalath had not returned from the Vale of Midnight Tears and he could only assume they were dead. Elhyn felt the loss weigh heavily upon him, dismayed by how far the Eldar had fallen from grace. Athelling had been a verdant world and its people bountiful, by the standards of the dying Eldar race, more Exodites had populated this one world than any Craftworld could dream of. Now their prosperity was in ruins and their very survival threatened, extinction beckoned and unless something was done their saga would end. Elhyn might well live to see the death of his whole world. He wished he could rail against such a fate, he wished he could rage and shout but he felt hollow inside, cold and empty. All his youthful exuberance was gone and there was no fire left in him.

He heard footsteps approaching and turned to see a party of souls emerging from among the dishevelled and weary crowd. Panthiro, M'sgith and E'raye, along with Dalsaar, the only surviving Dynast. They looked utterly defeated, weary to the bone and they walked to him with heads bowed low. Elhyn looked at them and saw what he dreaded most in their eyes but he had to ask anyway, "Laegwen?"

Nobody could look him in the eye but Panthiro lamented, "Nowhere to be seen, none saw her escape the village. We can only assume the Treesinger is lost."

Elhyn sagged as woe built within him and breathed, "My sister, my mother, my home. There is nothing left of the Wind-dancers."

The grief was heavy to bear but Dalsaar protested, "There is you. Elhyn, you are now Dynast of the Wind-dancers and it falls to you to lead your people."

"Lead them where?" Elhyn moaned, "What lands are not claimed by some other Kinband? Who would not raise their spears to drive us from their lands?"

Dalsaar pursed his lips then proposed, "You could join the Kraken-riders and add your strength to ours."

Elhyn was startled to hear that, their Kinbands had been bitter rivals for generations, the idea of his mother's most hated foe offering an open hand was shocking. "Why you would offer that?" Elhyn probed.

Dalsaar shrugged, "Our pasts are irrelevant now, this corruption will consume all of Athelling if we don't stop it. Who cares about the size of our hunting grounds if those lands are torn out from under us?"

Elhyn was surprised by his admission yet Panthiro spat, "You mean to absorb the Wind-dancers? It would be the end of us. The songs of our people would no longer be sung; our sacred dances would be forgotten. The Kraken-riders would benefit from our numbers but the culture of the Wind-dancers would be erased."

Elhyn heard the pride in his tone but sighed, "My friend it is already too late for that, our Treesinger is lost and with her the voices of our ancestors. The Wind-dancers are already dead."

Panthiro protested, "But if you pledge us to Dalsaar you would no longer be the Dynast."

Elhyn replied, "My mother would never consider it but she is gone. I must think of what is best for our people. Where could we go where we could build a new life? There is no land we could travel to without having to fight other Kinbands, nobody would give up their lands to make room for us. We can cling to our pride and die or be humble and live. This is the only way to survive."

Dalsaar inclined his head and said, "Wise words and I pledge the memory of the Wind-dancers will not end. We shall accept you as friends and see your rites become part of ours."

Panthiro eyed him and said, "I doubt your Kin would share your generosity, what could persuade them not to slit our throats in our sleep?"

Dalsaar confessed, "Because they know we cannot survive alone. The Kraken-rider's lands abut yours; so we shall face the corruption next. If we do not find a way to stop this rot then my lands shall die within days."

Elhyn frowned as he queried, "You think was can undo this?"

Dalsaar sighed, "Stop it? No. Contain it… perhaps. Either way we have to try. I have already sent word to all the Kinbands of Athelling, all those who refused to join our fight against the Mon-Keigh. They sensed the breach of the World Spirit and understand the scale of the threat. A great council of Treesingers is being called to confront this rot. They will seek a way to quarantine the corruption and ward it away from other lands… they have to succeed or all Athelling is doomed. I shall need your voice for the inevitable arguments that follow."

Elhyn bowed his head and said, "That is more generous than I could have hoped for, I thank you and offer what strength we have to your efforts."

It was a solemn pledge yet as he said it E'raye broke her silence to utter, "You do not speak for all of us."

Elhyn blinked in shock and spluttered, "What do you mean?"

M'sgith answered, "We shall not pledge to another Kinband, we refuse."

Elhyn heart sank as he said, "You intend to claim a new land? Foolish madness, you can't think to wage battle with so few numbers."

However E'raye surprised them all by saying, "You misunderstand, we do not intend to stay on Athelling, we shall take to the Webway and seek a new future among the stars."

"What?!" Panthiro spat, "You intend to flee Athelling?! Where among the stars shall you go, what shall you do?"

M'sgith replied candidly, "We shall seek out the Ynnari, the Whispering God accepts all."

Elhyn protested in disbelief, "You would chase a fleeting madness, a cult of insanity? We need you here."

Panthiro agreed, "I loathe the idea of joining another Kinband as much as you do but this is madness. You can't leave us now."

E'raye spat back, "We can and we will."

M'sgith added, "We are not alone, Eldar from the Wind-dancers, Kraken-riders, Stone-hearts, Bloody-talons and Swift-runners think as we do. They prepare to leave as we speak."

Panthiro growled, "You won't go, I won't let you."

Yet Elhyn cut him off saying, "You would unleash more strife among us? No, we cannot survive if we are at each other's throats. If they want to depart, then let them go."

Panthiro spun about and spat, "You permit this madness?!"

Elhyn sighed, "My mother said no Dynast can stop the calling of one's heart. We are not Mon-Keigh tyrants to dictate what our people can and can't think. If their hearts do not belong to Athelling then there is no point keeping them here. They would never be content, better they go than stay and grow bitter and resentful."

E'raye nodded sagely and said, "I thank you, we shall depart in peace and cause you no more trouble."

Elhyn accepted this but M'sgith paused and looked at him strangely. She hesitated a moment then leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and whispered, "Remember me fondly and dream of what might have been."

Then the twins turned about and departed. Elhyn was confused by her words, it sounded almost like she had been hinting at something between them but she had never expressed any interest to him in all the decades they had hunted together. He was baffled by her final missive and realised he would never have a chance to ask what she had meant. He lowered his eyes and lamented, "Another loss, how many more can we bear?"

Dalsaaar stepped in and said, "As many as we must. A shame the other Dynasts did not heed your words. Had the Dynast's heeded your council this tragedy may have been averted."

Elhyn sighed, "No, it would not. Even I underestimated the threat. We misunderstood the prophecy."

Dalsaar frowned as he said, "What do you mean?"

Elhyn explained, "Our ancestors took told us disaster would unfold when the Vale of Midnight Tears was violated. We took it to mean the invaders would release corruption but we were wrong. The Mon-Keigh brought the taint with them from the stars. We should have attacked the second they arrived and wiped them out, no matter the cost to ourselves."

Dalsaar sighed, "Oh for the wisdom of a Farseer, perhaps it was a mistake to have none among us who follow the Path of foresight."

Then Panthiro interjected, "We cannot waste time lamenting the past, we must move forward. Our people need to leave this place, before the rot crosses the ravine."

"Indeed," Dalsaar concurred, "Let us be away from this place."

With that the pair strode away. Elhyn lingered a moment longer, gazing at the ruins of his home. His childhood was truly over and a bleak adulthood awaited him. He doubted he would ever fly free again, that he would laugh or love as freely as he once had. The rest of his life promised nothing but a dire struggle against the rot that infested his world and he knew he would spend the rest of his days seeking to undo the corruption that blighted Athelling. The Mon-keigh had doomed him to this dull existence, their crude and brutal existence was a curse upon the stars and he wished them all the pain and tragedy an uncaring galaxy could throw at them. A cold and miserable future lay before him and with a heavy heart he set off to find Ilfavor and begin his thankless task.