"What did you say?" Imisha hissed, voice filled to the brim with venom.
"Nefermind" the old ork grunted in resignation as he shifted most of Imisha's weight onto his other shoulder.
"Oh no, I want to know exactly what you said" crackled the seers voice once again in the intercom.
The ork janitor sighed as he carefully lowered himself down the rocky slope. The visibility in the toxic mist was all but zero and the hazard suit he wore did not make his job any easier. Nor did the pissed off farseer he carried on his back. Sweat was pouring down his face when he finally reached a space flat enough to gently lower his burden for a moment.
"I surez it be yourz suit" he panted.
"Oh, no! You said 'I thought all pointy ears were supposed to be slim and light'. No mention of the suit!" Imisha mimicked the ork speech mannerism as best she could, sitting propped up against a large rock, arms crossed and fire in her eyes.
"I thought yer didn't knowz what I said" the ork mumbled in return. He could only make out the vague shape of the farseers hazard suit and was saved by the haze from her furious gaze.
"I know exactly what you said. Now apologize!"
"I be carrying yers on my back and I haz to apologize!?"
"Yes!"
"It be not my fault dat yer be fat with da babies! Or dats yer was stupid enuff to get yerself stabbed!"
He could hear the seer taking a breath as if to speak but then the speaker inside his helmet fell silent. The old ork immediately regretted his harsh words. Slumped on the rock in front of him was the pitiful figure of the farseer. She still had no feeling or control of her lower body. Had she been an ork it would only be a matter of time before she healed. But she was an eldar and they were as fragile as glass. And he had seen the severed nerves with his own eyes. Perhaps the pointy ears had some magic he lacked but barring that she would never walk again.
Had to be tough, the ork mused as he cooled down. The poor pointy ear couldn't even control her own bodily functions anymore and was now forced to wear a diaper. He remembered the first time she had unwittingly pissed the bed she had put her in and how she had tried to hide it. Her pride had to have taken a hit from that. Yeah, it had to be tough. Three babies in her belly, far away from all her kin, all alone.
But yet here she was anyway, showing no signs of giving up. Relentlessly pursuing the only thing that mattered. In more ways than one they were pretty alike, his daughter and the haughty farseer. None of them were pretty, though in different ways. Both had a temper. Neither would ever admit to doing anything wrong. Stubborn as hell they were. He decided that the likeness was the best compliment he could muster as an excuse for calling the hormonal farseer fat.
"Okz okz! I be sorry! Sheesh! Yer be a just like herz" he finally laughted into the helmet.
"I am?" came Imisha's small voice in return.
"Yeah" he chuckled "She didn'tz want to admitz she was clumsy. Knocking over everything wehereffer she wentz, dat one. Did notz like me pointing it out!"
"You sure we are on the right path? You sure this way leads to where you left her?" the farseer inquired carefully, seemingly having accepted his apology.
"Yes, da way be pretty easy to remember. Just one hell of a descent." And one hell of a climb up again. Shit. He hadn't thought of that before, it would be even worse. There was a small silence between them. Finally Imisha spoke again. Her voice was composed and light, as if stretching out a hand of truce through the aether towards him.
"You never told me how an ork torturer came to adopt and eldar child and started writing...erotica"
"It was herz dat forced me start writingz. Such a dirty mind on datz one." he once again chuckled at the memory of his daughter.
"That's it? She wanted you to start writing and you did?" Imisha answered, clearly unconvinced.
"Yer knows she changes yer, doesn't yer?" The farseer was silent, offering no response over the intercom.
"Just being aroundz her changes yer. She haz dis...aura. Yer start finkin' strangely."
"At first we wanted to sells herz as a slave. Der was nuffing else worth shitz in da chamber up ahead where me and da team found her. She would be our only profit. We chained herz up and..." He stopped, hardly being able to believe how they had treated her in those early days. The old ork had to almost forcibly unclench his jaws to continue.
"Yer don'tz see it coming. It grows in yer likez a tree, so slowly yer can't see the difference from day to day. At first yer just don't feelz like hurting her. Den I foundz myself tending to her woundz, bring her extra food... and beforez yer knows it..."
"You love her." Imisha stated.
"Yes."
"So she manipulates people to do her will" Imisha's voice had a bitter edge.
"I dontz thinks she can controlz it. It be like breathing for herz. And it only seems workz on a few people. Belief me, der be plenty of times it would have been mighty useful if she could controlz people and forke dem to likez her. But most people just see her as a little runt."
"She is a little runt" Imisha spat over the intercom.
"Is dat why yer camez halfway across the galaxy, to tell herz dat?"
Yet again, the ork was met with nothing but silence.
"Come onez. I told yer my story. Now tell me yourz."
The ork squinted through the haze at the shadow of the farseer on the rock. She sat dead still as if frozen, obviously contemplating something. After a moment he could see her slowly raising he hand and gently stroking the outside of her suit where her stomach was. The ork looked away, feeling he was intruding on a private moment. Instead he stood up and got ready to continue.
"It be okz, let get goingz shall..." But he was interrupted.
"We are dying." Imishas voice was soft, almost a whisper.
"Yer might not be able to walkz again, but I don't finks yer is dying..."
"I don't mean me and my children specifically. I mean all of us. The Eldar. We are dying. We have been dying for the last ten thousand years. A slow suffocating death, gasping for air, each breath harder than the last. Bit by bit, we are going out with a whimper."
What the fuck do you answer to something like that, the ork couldn't help thinking. He shifted uncomfortably. The Eldar and the Orks were vicious enemies. He should be overjoyed to hear and witness their demise. But he was not.
"I be sorryz." he grunted.
"I am a seer among my people. Not a very good one but still it is my job to look into the future to try to see the best path ahead for our people. Yet everywhere I gaze there is fire and death waiting for us. Everywhere but in one direction."
"For when I remember her, when I picture her face in my mind, it is like someone is lighting a candle in my heart. And from that candle all the darkness in the galaxy is forced to retreat. It is the sole light in a world that has known only gloom. The small flickering flame whispers to me, comforts me, promises me that there is still hope for my children to grow up in a better world than this shitty one." Imisha was sobbing through the speaker.
"From that flame a golden thread spirals off into eternity. Every day I open my eyes and follow that thread into tomorrow, praying that it leads me on the right path. A path that has so far alienated me from everyone and stranded me here, legless and friendless. Yet like a moth, I have no choice but to follow the flame."
"Dat be very pretty and all." The old ork suddenly had an impulse to scratch his head but the suit stopped him. " But I just be an orkz. What does it mean?"
"I think she is in trouble. I have...seen her...in pain. Hurting." The old ork could hear Imisha drawing a sharp breath and unwittingly clenched his own fists at her words. "When I close my eyes I can almost feel her breaking. And if she breaks so does any hope I have for the future."
"Den we better getz going." He walked over to the farseer in two strides and stretched out his hand. She took it and he gently hoisted her body onto his shoulders.
"Just one fing."
"Yes?"
"Yer not friendless"
"I'm not?" It was clear from her confusion that farseer completely missed the underlying implication.
This one's dafter than the last one, the orkish smut writer mused as he started down the rocky slope once again. Perhaps The daft knocked up pointy eared farseer could be a suitable title for his next novel?
"No, yer not."
"Yer can breathe in herez" the ork announced and before Imisha could protest he started removing his hazard suit. And true to his word he didn't die choking on the toxic fumes. Strange, the long winding tunnel they had entered had contained no barriers that would keep the poisonous outside air out. It was pitch dark inside the chamber and Imisha had only the torch mounted on her suit to give her light and even that was woefully insufficient for piercing the compact darkness. The rocky wall she was leaning on was jetblack and smooth as glass. Could it be obsidian? Tentatively she reached out with her gloved hand and stroked across it.
"I be telling yer, it be safe"
Still hesitant Imisha pulled the glove off her suit and touched the surface. She immediately retracted the hand.
"It's cold!"
"Yer, it be chilly in here"
Imisha turned around as best she could and shone her torch onto the fissure from which they had just emerged. It looked exactly like a crack in a piece of glass. Turning her torch upwards she could see the wall curving slightly upwards and two the side, as if they were inside a huge marble. Imisha removed her helmet so she could see better. Nervously she drew a breath of cold air into her lungs. It reminded her of the mountain air at her beloved exodite moon, clear and clean. Awkwardly she started wriggling out of her suit. Her ork escort stood next to her, looking uncertain.
"Yer wantz some helpz?" he asked carefully.
"No thank you" Imisha managed with as much dignity she could muster. "But could you..." she jerked her head the other way. She had certainly grown to accept many things she never in her wildest dream never thought she would do. But still she'd rather change her own diaper without an audience if possible.
"Oh yer rightz" Sheepishly he wandered around to a group of boulders next to them and turned his head way. Imisha got down to business. Thank Isha that she was strong as an ox in her arms.
"How did you find this place anyway?"
"I be just another dot on a map. I dontz rememberz where we gotz the info. In those timez we took any lead we could findz. Me and my teamz." the ork shrugged.
"You never told me what happened to your team, you still keep in touch?" Imisha wondered.
"Noes." His voice was short but Imisha was too focused on her task at hand to pick up on it.
"Why not?
"Dem be dead". Now Imisha got the point. The point being drop the subject.
"I'm sorry" she mumbled and lowered her head. "I'm done, could you come pick me up please?" The earless ork lumbered over and looked down on her.
"Won't yer be coldz in dat?" Imisha's rune armor would not fit inside the hazard suit so she wore only the thin overall she usually had on under the armor.
"Oh, it's warpconductive. I'll be fine"
"It be wutz?" A look of purest confusion spread across the ork's face.
"It allows me to use my mind to keep myself warm" Imisha smiled back. She looked completely different when she smiled, the ork mused.
"Dat must come in handy" The ork scratched his the stubs of his ears at the notion of clothes that warm themselves.
"It does indeed." Imisha almost laughed a little. She shifted to show a piece on her shoulder. "You see this rune here..."
"Wut be dats der?" The ork interrupted her, pointing towards a symbol low on Imisha's stomach.
"Oh that..." the seer blushed.
"Wut it be?" the ork pressed on.
"It's an old fertility symbol. For...you know..."
"Yes yes. Dem babies and all. I seenz it beforez." He glanced back from where he just had stood.
"What?" Imisha tried to stand up but then remembered she couldn't. So instead she reached up her hands and allowed the ork to hoist her into his arms. With quick steps her carried he back towards the rock where he had just waited. He lowered the seer to the ground and pointed to a low rock protruding from the floor. It was different than the rest, covered with a porous light mineral that crumbled when touched. At it's base was undoubtedly several runes on a piece of shining black stone. Imisha squinted and shook her head.
"Wut dem be?" her companion asked her eagerly.
"They look like runes. But ...it's like a dialect...they make no sense."
"Dat onez looks like da one yer has on yer belly." The ork pointed towards one of the symbols.
"It is almost the same. But you see with runes the details matter so much. See how this one is tilted. As I said mine is a fertility symbol. This is much more technical, like an engineering term. It would be..." Imisha shook her head and muttered, trying to remember her rune lessons.
"Creator? Not quite. Constructor...constructor function?" Imisha shook her head. She tried to brush the dust from the stone when part of the stone over the runes came off. Out from underneath the stone peaked a perfect shiny black toe. Eagerly she tore more and more of the crust away, revealing a whole foot, broken off where the rock ended.
"Der be more scribbles over herez"
Imisha didn't wait for him to come and get her but crawled over to the next rock when the ork sat crouched. Eagerly she scraped away the dust, revealing another broken foot. This one was slightly larger and somewhat coarser. Of course. It was a male foot. Below it were another set of confusing runes.
"Maintenance? No no no. Energy...fuel...fuel collector?"
"Is dis some kinds of old eldar factory?" the ork tried. Imisha shook her head.
"These aren't rocks. They were statues. There is a theme here, a schema." She pointed back towards the other rock. "That one over emblematized the creation of something, this one here keept whatever it was going"
Imisha looked up suddenly realizing something. Hand shaking she shone her torch at the stones standing before her. If you discounted the rubble and other broken rocks the stones were standing in a perfect circle. In the exact middle of the circle was another shadowy rock formation.
"Where exactly did you find her? First time you met her?" Her voice was shaking.
"Der, lying on dat rock where yer is shining yer light"
"Please take me there" A thought was forming in Imisha's head. An unthinkable, impossible thought. Her eyes never left the center rock as the ork carried her closer. This rock was much lower than the others and hollowed out like a bath tub. Like the others it had a plaque of runes at the bottom.
"What do dem sayz?"
"Destructor function." Imisha uttered numbly. Having read the first plaque this one was easy. It was the clear opposite. What the first statue lifted up this one would send crashing down. At the bottom was another set of three runes, much less ornate than the others, seemingly scribbled on in haste. They read: Unfinished, unborn, but not unloved. Imisha slumped down on the floor. She could not believe it.
"Wut does it meanz?"
Without looking up Imisha pointed towards the first rock formation.
"That there was once a statue of Isha, the Eldar goddess of life"
She pointed towards the next rock.
"This one must have been Kurnous, the god of the hunt"
She swirled her hand around.
"I am willing to bet that these are all of the Eldar pantheon" She stared in disbelief at the center rock again, absent mindedly tearing away big chunks of crust from the shining container beneath.
"Dis be a temple? Wut be datz here in da middle?"
When Imisha didn't answered he bowed down and helped her clear the crust off the stone. A strange structure was emerging from under the layer of loose rock. It was like a hollow table with rounded bars for legs and a big indentation in the middle.
"Dis make any sense to yer?"
"Yes" Imisha breathed. "It's a crib."
"A wut?"
"A bed made for a small child." Imisha's hand stroked the exquisite stone construction. It was clearly made with a lot of care and attention.
"But who was it meantz for? Der be no..." As the words left his mouth he realized he already knew who must have slept in it.
"The Eldar goddess of Death"