The Eldar Quarter, Underground City...

Eldar Guardians paced up and down the walls boxing them inside their assigned sector of the Underground City, while others stood guard at the few entrances to their sector. With careful diplomacy, the Governor had managed to make several arrangements with the Farseer who led their people, one such arrangement being the very limited number of armed Eldar permitted within the city. And rather than have a mis-match of building structures within the city, the Eldar were not permitted to building their own constructions within the city limits, or outside without Tom's permission, yet Bonesingers were still allowed within the city. The Eldar felt nervous around the guardsmen, and the guardsmen felt nervous around the Eldar. Tensions were high. Both sides were looking for the smallest hint of betrayal. Any excuse to act.

The Eldar's Webway gate was located beneath the television on the dresser opposite the bottom of the bed and stationed around it was a squad of elite Tempestus Scions would worked on eight hour rotatory shifts so the gate was always guarded at all points of the day. Anyone or anything that came through the gate was immediately put under observation from the guards and they were assessed and searched before they could enter the territory. The humans were taking no chances. Right now, Tom was working at his part-time job, and the Farseer was meditating in her quarters. Her permanent residence was still at Chad's house, but she was overseeing the operation at this side of the gate for a while, and she promised to return here regularly. But for now, she sat in the middle of her quarters and breathed peacefully, opening her mind and pondering on the future.

She opened one eye as a minuscule movement desturbed the air around her. She glanced around but saw nothing. Another movement behind her. She calmly sighed and, pretending that she simply couldn't focus and walked over to her bed. She made to lie down, but grabbed her Singing Spear and flicked herself around in a wide, flowing movement that allowed her spear to carry her around to face behind her. She landed on her feet and scanned left to right, looking for movement. She spun her spear around in several quick moves to hopefully throw off her opponent. She held the spear behind her arm, speartip up and strutted over to the centre of the room where she lowered herself into a ready stance. She sensed no more movement. She closed her eyes and blocked out the room, the air around her, and the present itself. Instead, she focused on the future.

Her eyes shot open and she spun around and brought her spear up in an overhead block, holding both ends of the spear in her delicate hands. Sparks flew as a master-crafted sabre connected with the spear-shaft. She angled the spear to use the momentum of the blow to drive the sabre into the ground, and brought her knee up and felt it connect with the face of her would-be attacker. He stumbled backwards from the blow and took several steps to recover, just in time to see the Farseer leap into the air, bringing her spear up to stab down at him. He rolled desperately out of the way and flipped to his feet, sabre ready. The Farseer came at him with a flurry of thrusts and slashes with her spear, which he swiftly dodged or knocked aside with his sabre, each blow coming closer and closer to ending him. Farseer Tanhith slashed at his chest, and he countered with his own slash. Sparks flew again as the weapons locked together and the two combatants stared at each other across their blades. The pushed hard against each other and were both launched backwards, landing gracefully on their feet. They continued to stare at each other, panting slightly, their weapons slightly lowered. The assailant began to laugh and the Farseer started to join him in laughing.

"Took you long enough. Your technique is starting to falter, though." She joked.

"We'll it took you long enough to notice me." He retorted joyfully.

They both lowered their weapons and grasped each other in a close embrace. The Eldar Ranger had been on his assignment for quite some time and the Farseer had missed him greatly. Likewise, he had missed her too. The two had definitely grown close over their time working together.

"I trust you have completed your assignment?" She asked him as they broke the embrace.

"Of course! Have I ever failed you?" He laughed.

"Obviously not, else I would have chosen someone else for this task." She replied. "So, what are your findings?"

"The one they call 'Cypher' is here. And he is planning something, but as of yet, I have no idea what that something is."

"And the council members?"

"The Governor is hiding something is as well, though I don't think it concerns us. And the captain seems to be speaking with the giant that lives here for most of the day. It seems they are close. I think the giant sees something of himself in the captain."

"Good... And the Commissar? What about him?"

"Something huge is happening with him! He is the most scheming of them all!"

"What?! What is he up to?!" She asked, suddenly exasperated.

"He hasn't killed a single person since he got here! What is he up to?"

The Farseer burst out with laughter and shoved the Ranger hard in the shoulder. They both laughed for several minutes.

"Now, my lady, I must leave. The mon-keigh don't know that I'm here and I'd prefer to keep it that way. You're under a lot of surveillance for the moment, though sneaking in was no problem for me."

"Goodbye, my love..." She sighed sadly. She kissed him and he left once again, sad that he had to go.


"By the Emperor... I have to inform the captain about this!" The guardsmen from Team Reaper whispered to himself as he spied on the meeting between the Ranger and Farseer.

"No, you don't..." A voice whispered behind him.

Before the guardsmen could even gasp in shock, a huge combat knife pierced his throat. He choked and rasped as blood spurted forwards out of him like a crimson fountain. He lost so much blood before his choking stopped and he collapsed forward into a pool of his own blood, rapidly expanding around him.


The Living Room, The House...

Several hours later...

I came home from work as usually but as I dropped my bag in the kitchen, I heard the smallest commotion coming from the living room. So of course I wandered in to see what was going on. Stood there, on the coffee table, with weapons drawn and voices raised, were Space Marines, Guardsmen and Eldar. Great... Just what I needed.

"It is a clear xenophobic insult that you blame us with no evidence to suggest such!" I heard the Farseer scream at the top of her lungs.

"One of our men was killed in your section of the city! That is evidence enough!" The Governor yelled back.

"What was he doing in our sector anyway?!" A Banshee howled.

"We have a right to maintain surveillance on potential threats! You are our guests after all!" The captain shouted.

"On my personal quarters! You perverts!" The Farseer shrieked.

"The point remains that your kind have killed a human, and you have yet to uphold your end of the bargain!" A Space Marine exclaimed.

The mysterious and hooded Cypher remained silent, though his hands were on his pistols.

"ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU!" I boomed.

The all went immediately silent and stared up at me with a mixture of exhaustion, fear and stress. Clearly they had been at this for some time before I got here. What were they arguing about now?

"Ok, now there's so peace, someone tell me what has happened."

They all starting complaining to me all at once so I brought my hand down on the table, hard.

"Someone..." I stressed. I pointed at the captain. "You."

"Favouritism..." The Farseer muttered under her breath.

"Well sir," he started. "A guardsmen corpse was found in the Eldar sector of the city. Cause of death was a bladed weapon to the back of the neck, and his attacker had enough strength to drive the weapon all the way through and then pull it free again. With such... graceful bladed weapons, and the location of his death, we find it reasonable to assume that one of the Eldar were responsible."

"Right..." I said. "Now you. What's your version?" I asked, pointing to the Farseer.

"You... you want my version?" She asked, genuinely surprised. "You don't trust your fellow Terranians?"

"It's not that. It's that if we want to truly know who's responsible, we have to know all sides of the story. It's not fair otherwise."

"You may just be the wisest mon-keigh I have ever had the misfortune of meeting..."

"Thanks?" I replied, unsure if it was an insult or a compliment.

"Now, here's what happened. I was meditating in my personal quarters and I heard a sound outside. I sent some of my guards to investigate and they found the mon-keigh, facedown and dead, the blood still expanding around him. Not wanting to test the already strained relations between my people and yours, I informed the council immediately about what my men had found. And now the mon-keigh blame us for the crime! If we carried out the crime, we would not inform them that one of theirs is dead. We would hide the body and deny it. They couldn't complain to you because we would simply question what a mon-keigh was doing in our sector without permission. It would make no sense for us to reveal the body if we were guilty!"

"All valid and fair points..." I admitted and thought. "But meditating... alone? While that makes sense, something is making me believe that you aren't telling us everything, Farseer."

"I was alone..." I heard her voice said, though he lips did not move. "The meditating session was... personal..." She spoke into my mind.

I flushed bright red.

"Ah... never mind actually. Look, right now, it is impossible to tell who is guilty and who is innocent. But pointing weapons and placing blame won't help anyone. We have to work together to solve this mystery. We will only further hurt the investigation if we fight amongst each other. Is it so much to ask that you put aside your differences and age-old rivalries and work together for the greater good?"

As one, they all shifted from pointing their weapons at each other to pointing their weapons at me.

"He's a Tau!" Someone yelled.

"Why would I have posters of the blessed Emperor of mankind and heroes of the Imperium if I'm secretly a blue guy with a weird fish-fetish?!" I asked them, getting slightly nervous.

They all looked around at each other and shrugged, satisfied at my reasoning and fairly accurate depiction of typical Tau. They lowered their weapons at looked suspiciously at each other. Why was so many weird things happening lately? Corrupt Space Wolves, mysterious hooded Space Marines, magically appearing undead robots, and now a murder mystery. Oh, and mine and my friend's models coming to life. How could I forget? The novelty was wearing off, fast. So far, only one rule was certain with these guys: trust no-one.


Sector 5, Underground City...

"How very intriguing... I never planned for this... How very intriguing indeed..." Cypher muttered to himself.

"Does this change our plan, sir?" The towering Brother-Champion Ezeikel asked his master.

"No. We stick with the original plan. We may just have to speed things up to get things moving faster than we had originally allowed for. Send more men in to spy for us... and double the watch! Being in this universe is getting more and more interesting by the day..."


Eldar Quarter, Underground City...

"You are all the finest of the aspects that are here. And each of you is ideally suited to the different tasks I have for you. We cannot allow the mon-keigh to continue to believe they are superior to us! We must show them the strength of Kaine and show that we will not roll over and die quietly. We will fight back against those that oppose us! We will be victorious! But now is not the time for reckless actions. Not yet. First we must be sensible. We must be discreet. Now is the time for covert action! That is how we must fight! We must find and expose those that seek to ruin our relations!" Farseer Tanhith declared, gaining a combat-ready cheer from each of the different commanders that surrounded her. Let there be war!


Command Post Alpha, Underground City...

"Gentlemen," Governor Anderson started addressing his small council, "It would seem that the Eldar do indeed have ill intentions towards us, and we must address that issue!"

"Or perhaps, the Fallen are the true culprits of the crime?" Captain Westfield suggested, much to the surprise of the others gathered there.

"It is heresy to even assume that the noble Astartes would turn from the Emperor's eternal light. Watch your tongue, captain." The head tech-priest droned.

"It has happened before!" Captain Westfield countered. "Let's be honest, we know very little about the Astartes stationed here and they keep very much to themselves. And if you ask me, they seem far too eager to get the Space Wolf prisoner that the Eldar hold. It seems to me, they are hiding something."

"I agree with the captain." Commissar Reginald put in. "While the Eldar do indeed seem guilty thus far, I do agree that the Fallen are hiding secrets. The Eldar witch saw it herself."

"But how do we know the Eldar aren't just trying to pit us against each other before they finish us off themselves?" The Master of Scouts asked.

"Yeah. That is the kind of thing they would do." The new Master of Ordinance agreed.

"The point remains!" Governor Anderson cut them off. "That right now, we have to be carefully of who we trust. Until we know otherwise, assume everyone is working against us."

"Agreed!" The others chorused.


The Webway Gate, The Dresser...

A handful new bonesingers strolled peacefully out of the Webway and looked around them at the new world as they entered, only for Tempestus Scions to dive on them and wrestle them roughly to the ground. The bonesingers were swiftly restrained and thrown into a dark container where the doors were swung and bolted shut from outside. A nearby crane lifted them up to the top of the shelves, in the hangar. Once lifted up there, another squad of Scions unlocked the container and forced the occupants back outside where they were forced into a dimly lit industrial complex and were forced into individual rooms where they were tied to a chair.

"What is the meaning of this!" One bonesinger asked, aghast.

His reply came in the form of a fist smashing into the side of his face, jerking his head to the right and cracking his jaw. The bonesinger made to yell in pain but his interrogator forced a dirty, old rag into his mouth, muffling the scream. The interrogator walked away and over to a nearby table where an assortment of torture equipment was neatly laid out. He selected a small scalpel and waltzed menacingly over to the bonesinger. The bonesinger's eyes went wide with fear as he eyed the medical tool-gone-weapon. He shrieked into the gag and shook violently against his restraints.

"Sh, sh, sh, sh..." His interrogator hushed. "Don't worry now... This won't hurt a bit... Now here's what's going to happen. Either I'm going to slice you up slowly and painfully, or you are going to tell me everything I want to know. Get it?"

The bonesinger nodded sadly.

"Good boy..." The interrogator cooed.

The calming voice of the interrogator was ruined as an ear-splitting scream pierced the air. But it ended as suddenly as it started with a malicious crunch. The interrogator looked at the door, where the scream had come from, before looking back at his bonesinger, grinning broadly.

"Get it?" he repeated.


The Plaza, Underground City...

"Master Cypher." An Eldar Warlock called out.

Cypher, who was chatting with a squad of his veterans, turned around, curious as to why this Eldar saw fit to disturb him.

"I have a gift for you.." The Warlock explained, gesturing behind him.

Behind the Warlock, several Howling Banshees wrestled with a feral Space Wolf Blood Claw in chains. The Astartes' hair was a bright ginger-red and his teeth had been filed to fangs. Drool slobbered from his lips as he pulled aggressively against his restraints. He still wore the colours and heraldry of the Space Wolves, and not a single mark of Chaos defiled his power armour. How intriguing. He bore no mark of Chaos, but his heresy was evident in the crimes his chapter had committed here. Cypher's veterans took hold of the Space Wolf's restraints and Cypher inclined his head slightly in a bow of thanks to the Warlock.

"Thank you." He said. "You're gift is received gratefully by us. Tell your mistress that we are now happy, and we look forward to more business together."

"Do not mistake this for us liking your kind or considering trafficking. We are not your allies and we are not our dark cousins. We do not normally deal in slaves." The Warlock announced, pointing his finger warningly at the leader of the Fallen.

"We know." Cypher grinned.

So far, his plan was working, despite a few setbacks...