She waltzed in from beyond the stars, stopping briefly to witness the carnage below. A squadron of Imperial heavy cruisers was getting hammered by a dozen or so of her faithful followers, boxed in on all sides, their fate all but sealed. But just as the chaos warships were reaching boarding range and it was time for the faithful to feast on the crews the air around the imperial ships shimmered and a hundred arrows of angry red light split the night. The lead chaos ships disintegrated under the concentrated firepower of several sleek Eldar voidcraft, as they decloaked and opened up with heavy weapons at point blank range. The remains of the chaos attack squadron hungrily turned to face their new foe, turning their backs on their imperial counterparts. This turned out to be a fatal mistake as the lead Imperial battlecruiser accelerated and rammed its armoured bow straight into the chaos flagship, splitting it right down the middle. In the turmoil the Eldar crafts slipped away, only to reappear again on the other side of the battle line, tearing two more chaos ships into shreds.

She smiled. The little ones put up quite a spectacle. She could end it with a snap of her fingers if she wanted, but what would be the point of that? Why would she end the show early before she has gotten to enjoy the full extent of the bloodshed? This battle was one giant prayer, man and Eldar offering their souls to her en masse. Faithful or foe, they were all part of it. What kind of god would she be if she denied them their chance to play before she ate them? Slowly she shifted her gaze from the massive space battle to the planet below. It burned with the fires of war. An endless stream of demonic landing craft streamed down from the void into an almost compact hail of ground fire. The Eldar craftworld, which had descended to low orbit, acting as a shield for the force below against the orbital bombardment of the chaos fleet. A whole craftworld. It wasn't often she got to eat a whole world. This would be a good day. If she closed her eyes she could feel the many thousands of tiny flickering souls down there, all ready to be defiled and eaten.

Thick saliva poured down her open jaws, flowing down her chest and legs. Could she really wait? Perhaps she could rip the souls out of a few as an appetizer? What if she just made a grand entrance into the midst of it all, taking one giant breath and gouging on everything and everyone. The thought excited her. But no, she would not rush things. She wanted them to suffer, wanted them to see the terror of their coming doom, see the light of their hope flicker and die. Only then would they be ready to be harvested to their fullest potential. Oh yes, this would be a night she could pleasure herself thinking of for years to come. What had she been thinking? After all, why would one eat raw grapes when one knows how to make wine? But surely an appetiser wouldn't hurt, a teensy weensy little snack before the main feast. She strode closer to the sliver of silver hanging like a needle over the black and white world.

There was something different about the Eldar in this world that she could not quite put her finger on. Their souls smelled...different, especially the children. And there were so many of them, a hive of pointy-eared little piss ants. More than three times the expected number for a craftworld of that size, all with vibrant fiery souls. She instantly decided that she did not like it. While children were always a feast, especially if you could have the parents watch them get eaten alive, there was something wrong with these children. They made her feel nauseous. Inadvertently she had slowed down her approach towards the craftworld. Bile was rising in her throat.

I knew you would come. I can feel you. Sister.

No! Not her sister!

You can't do it, can you?

She can. She will!

Go ahead then, eat them. Be my guest.

She almost vomited, spilling the contents of her stomach all over the galaxy. The concept of consuming those little lives was so vile, so repulsive that the mere thought made her knees weak. She hissed, glaring down at the border between light and darkness down on the world below, where two giant beams raced off towards the eye of terror. The excitement over the slaughter had made her forget why she had come in the first place. Why she had left her palace to come into this stupid little dirty insignificant world. That disgusting little mouse.

We need to talk. You know where to find me.

Hatred and anger boiled within her. She wanted to hurt, she wanted to eat, she wanted to destroy. Yet all she could do was obey. On wings of silk and razor wire, she descended through the clouds down towards the surface of the planet, still hidden inside the warp. Her faithful were everywhere, swarming the defending Eldar and Imperial positions that still held firm around her sister. No, not her sister! Around the mouse. The filthy little mouse. She saw an Eldar warlock, clad in nothing but bloody rags leap high into the air and cleave the head of a Keeper of Secrets clean in two with her witchblade. Next to her, an imperial inquisitor clapped his thunder hammer into the ground, sending ranks of daemonettes flying in all directions. Behind them, waves upon waves of grey imperial terminators advanced, covering their flanks as they carved a bloody path through the demonic hordes.

Her feet touched the ground behind the battle lines, next to a small hill. She gazed around, looking for the avatar of the bloody-handed god. Surely that old fart would not miss out on a slaughter like this. Yet to her surprise she couldn't find him anywhere. Lost in her thoughts she failed no noticed the single Eldar, a middle-aged woman, standing in front of her, head bowed low in reverence.

"Welcome, divine one. I have been sent to greet you."

Look at me. Look at me and lose yourself.

The woman looked up with calm eyes, straight in the eyes of the doom of her kind. And she smiled. Politely. The chaos god was breathing harder and harder, teeth gritted together, fists clenched. Everything was wrong, this was not how it was supposed to be. From the shawl around her chest came a tiny squeak. Apologetically the woman hushed the tiny life within, rocking it back and forth. The doom of all her kind just stared back, not knowing what to do. Just like with the others there was something wrong with the child.

"I'm sorry about that, now if you would please follow me."

The woman bowed again and graciously started to walk up the hill. The doom of the Eldar sullenly followed her.

Your child.

"Yes, divine one. This is my daughter."

Tell her what's wrong with it. Tell her now.

"There is nothing wrong with my daughter, divine one. She's just a little different."

She flexed her jaws. If she wanted she could consume them both in an instant. Gobble them up and have their souls digested into nothing in her stomach. So why didn't she? Why in the name of the void didn't she?

"It's not much further, divine one."

Why does it call her that?

"Divine one?" The woman blushed slightly, turning around to smile once again. "I thought it the most prudent name."

Others name her the great devourer. The doom of the Eldar. She who thirsts.

"Those names are inappropriate. You're a god. An Eldar god. It's proper for me to show respect."

She studied the woman. Unlike her child, she was normal. Yet she was different. She reminded her of the filthy little mouse.

She is your enemy.

The woman shrugged.

"You are what we made you into. To deny you is to deny ourselves."

You serve it. Not her.

"It?"

The mouse.

"Do you mean Ynnead?"

Yes.

"Yes, divine one, I served Ynnead. I guess you could call me her high priestess."

She will kill your master. And you. And your child. She spoke the words with all the fury she could muster. Yet the threat felt hollow.

"You don't have to worry, she doesn't want to hurt you. She just wants to talk."

She doesn't want to talk to it.

"Forgive my impudence, divine one, but then why are you here?"

She doesn't know.

The words just kind of slipped out before the chaos god could stop them.

"Don't worry, the little runt has that effect on everyone. We're here, divine one."

"She gets to be 'divine one' while I'm 'little runt'? Explain yourself," came a snarky familiar voice from the top of the hill.

"Just calling it as I see it," the Eldar woman stated calmly.

"Some 'high priestess' you are," the voice shot back.

"If you can find anyone else who can put up with you they're welcome to the job."

"Ha, I bet there are thousands of people who would die to be in your shoes. Favoured of the gods and all that."

"If they knew what it entailed I think they would rather die than be in my shoes."

"Ha! That can be arranged! I am a death god after all."

"Please don't embarrass yourself while we have guests."

"Oh, yeah right, I forgot."

Ynnead skinny figure crested the hill above them. Reluctantly, she had to admit that the mouse was no longer a mouse. While she was still a girl, she had taken the first steps towards womanhood. No longer covering herself with a robe, she proudly displayed her scaled and feathered body for all to see. The girl skipped down the hill, light and shadow bleeding from her up into the sky, making her figure slightly diffuse to the eye.

"Before we start, I just have to ask you, between sisters-"

"Not this again," the Eldar woman groaned.

"Maybe if you would take me seriously, I wouldn't have to ask her," Ynnead shot back. She cupped her barely visible breasts with her hands and looked expectantly up towards her older sister, clearing her throat. "You see, I think the left one is bigger than the right one and I wonder if-"

"Ynnead, this is not a dignified conversation for a god. Nor is spending a whole night groping yourself and talking about future cup sizes."

"I just wanted to ask her if she experienced the same-"

ENOUGH!

The whole planet shook with the fury of the chaos god. The very earth around them broke apart, leaving only their little hill standing. For miles in all directions, soldiers and war machines alike were struck to the ground. Above them, the clouds parted and rushed away, driven away by the sudden eruption of pure power.

The Eldar woman was almost disintegrated by the explosion. Or she would have been if her master had not redirected the giant beams that had raced up into the sky towards her, shielding her and her terrified child in a lacey veil of mist and starlight. The two gods locked eyes, pink lightning and misty tendrils crackling along the path where their eyes met. The air smelled of smoke and fresh green grass.

Now she understands. It has indeed grown strong. It has fed on another of her own kin. Perhaps it is indeed her sister.

"Imisha, leave us. Go see to the others."

"Yes, Ynnead."

Yes, run little 'priestess'. Run as far as you can. She will soon be done here. Then she will come for you.

"Don't worry Imisha, I won't let her hurt you."

Ha! Last time the mouse made the same promise. That time it was the mouse's own parents. Do you know how it ended? Let her tell you. She fed the mother to the father and left your precious 'master' broken in a pile of filth among what remained of their corpses. She knows you now. And she knows your child. So tell me, little Eldar: Do you feel safe?

Imisha looked up at the chaos god, her face as white as ash. Yes, that's more like it.

"Goodbye, divine one."

Let her tell you all the things she will do to your little girl. She will cut-

From out of nowhere, the wind began to howl and a misty smoke filled the air. Ynnead seemed to tower over them, her shadow covering all of the lands around them, impossibly large for such a small girl. But before the death goddess had a chance to unleash her power, the chaos god leapt forward and struck at her sister with all her might. But as her claws raced towards the feathery face of her younger sibling her strength waned, the same revulsion as she had felt earlier returning with a vengeance. The closer she got to landing the killing blow, the weaker she became. Finally, before she could lay a hand on her foe, her legs buckled beneath her, sending her crashing towards the ground.

"Imisha, do you trust me?" Ynnead said in a tight voice, clenching and unclenching her fists, scaly knuckles white beneath her downy feathers.

"Yes, Ynnead."

"Then leave your daughter here with me. And leave. Now."

Imisha took a deep breath, then with shaking hands put her daughter down on the ground. Then, with more strength than she knew she had in her, she turned her back on her weeping child and started walking away from them. Ynnead glared down at her sister, cold fury filling her voice.

"You were saying you would do what, huh? Well, this is your chance. The child is right there. Cut her up, eat her, do your thing."

The chaos god looked at the child for the longest time, then roared in anguish, pounding the ground in impotent fury, yet carefully avoiding the child. When her sister could no longer see her, Ynnead breathed the tiniest sigh of relief.

"That's what I thought. You imagine yourself the goddess of corruption and sex and all that cool sounding stuff. But the more I hear about your birth the more I have come to conclude that a rose coloured view at best. Our little children just like to name you as such so they don't have to acknowledge the truth. That you're the goddess of stupidity, of arrogance. Just like them. It would have taken me what, 285 years, to close the eye of terror at this pace. Yet after less than a week, you come running, just like I knew you would. This entire game was rigged in your favour from the start and yet you still managed to lose. Or so you think. In reality, we've all just won. It's over. Call off your daemons."

No.

"Fine, then I will parade you in front of them like a beaten dog on a leash. And then I will help each and everyone across the veil right here and now. Like I always said sister: I don't want to fight you. But you have to realize that you can't fight me. Not anymore. Like it or not, I'm your queen now."

Fine. She will call them off for now. Just tell her how. Did the life-giver have this much power all along?

"You mean Isha? This wasn't her doing. Ironically, it was yours."

Liar. The mouse lies. She can smell the life-giver in you. You ate her.

"I did. She force-fed me her own essence until there was nothing left. But that was just to cure me of my own stupidity. Apparently, that trait runs strong in the family." Ynnead sat down next to her sister, eyes down, fiddling with her toes. "Don't you think that if Isha had that kind of power, she would have defeated you long ago? Even with all of her inside me, in terms of power, I'm still just a bad joke compared to you."

Then how?

"I tried to fight Isha, just as you tried to fight me. But I couldn't touch her. I threw everything I had at her and yet she didn't so much as blink. And I was much stronger than her, just as you're much stronger than me. I tried to tell you, sister, that power is not be trusted. It always stabs you in the back when you least expect it."

The pair of the sat silent for a time. Ynnead glanced shyly over at her sister, who sullenly averted her gaze, refusing to look her younger sibling in the eye. Rolling her eyes Ynnead picked up Imisha's baby girl, kissing her on the forehead and smiling as the girl instantly fell asleep in her arms. Imisha called it cheating, Ynnead called it convenient.

"Isha was the one who finished me, did you know that? Even before I ate her there was a part of her inside me. The best part of me, she called it, that proud old bombshell. Did you also hate the way she always assumed she's right?" Ynnead shook her head. Realizing her sister refused to answer, she sighed and took a deep breath.

"You ate my mother, didn't you?"

She played with the mouse's mother until it broke. Tore it apart. And consumed it.

"I know," Ynnead stated flatly. "But did you know she was already dead? She slit her wrists when she couldn't give birth to me."

She doesn't care.

"You don't understand. My point is that she was already dead. And I'm the death god. What you ate was a part of me I had briefly separated from the greater whole."

The chaos god jerked upright, her big brown eyes staring into Ynnead's in utter shock. Ynnead reached out and touched her sister as if they had never met before.

"That's right, sister. There is a part of me inside you. The very best part of me, and by now it's rooted itself into every fibre of your being. And there is a little bit of me in every one of these children. That's why you can't hurt them. Or me."

What are they?

"The future. The ones that will succeed us when we're gone."

So the mouse has it all figured out. Finish it then, kill her and be done with it.

Ynnead shook her head and rose to head feet, dusting the dirt out of her feathers.

"No. We have to all go together. Don't worry, death will come for us all soon enough. Besides, if I kill you, I will just release all of the ones you have inside you. Isha knows what they will do if unleashed. No, the fewer siblings I have to keep track of until the time comes the better."

Then what does it want? Why did it set this trap for her?

So the moment had finally come, Ynnead thought to herself. Her purpose. Not the one set out for her by others, or by fate, or by the needs of the Eldar. The purpose she had set for herself since she first opened her eyes.

"As the last queen of all of the children of the stars, I forgive you. I forgive you for beating and violating me, I forgive you for what you did to my mother. I forgive you for all the lives you've stolen and all the horrors you have unleashed onto the galaxy. But above all, I forgive you for being born."

Two more chapters. And then two epilogues. Then it's done.