Disclaimer

I do not own Warhammer 40k or Familiar of Zero, this is a nonprofit fanwork protected under fair use.


"It is the forty first millennium .For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology.

He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that he may never truly die.Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will.

Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat to humanity from aliens, heretics, mutants -- and far, far worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times.

Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage, slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods."


915.M41

Unknown Planet

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"There are no answers. Only death."


Two times. Two times already had the Vallière's youngest failed the summoning ritual - the rite of passage of every true mage in Halkeginia.

Colbert could see the desperation in the young girl's violet eyes as she pleads for a third and final chance. Letting out a sigh the balding man gives her the go ahead, one final try to secure herself a place in the world of mages - and nobility as a whole. Colbert had never met her mother, Karin the Heavy Wind in person, but the Duchess Vallière's reputation proceeded her in almost all regards and no stories told implied her to be fond of failure.

As Louise returns to the field, redoing her summoning circle a breeze picks up, causing her pink hair to billow out behind her, the field utterly silent aside from the occasional muffled chuckle from her peers, and even those are quickly silenced by Colbert's sharp glare.

Colbert turns his back towards Louise just in time to see the young noblewoman backing away from the summoning pentagram, looking back towards him for reassurance. He gives her a small nod and says,

"You may continue, recite the incantation and begin the familiar summoning."

Louise nods and faces forwards once more, straightening her back and blocking out the sound of her peers snickering in the background. Taking a deep breath to prepare herself, she begins to recite the incantation, pouring every last ounce of hope and desperation she could muster into the spell.

"My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. Pentagon of the five elemental power, Heed my summoning...

and bring forth

...my familiar!!"

She says, screaming the last few words as she ends the spell, thrusting her arm - and wand, forwards. For several moments there's silence, as she stands arm outstretched breathing heavily.

Then, the world went white. Chucks of grass and dirt flying in all directions as a massive explosion erupts in the center of the field a thick cloud of smoke covering the area and leaving the girl out of sight. Only the sound of a facade of steel cracking and a heart wrenching escaping the dark cloud. Even as the other students in the field erupt into laughter, making jokes and jeers at the failed summoning,

"Once a zero, always a zero!" one cries.

"Maybe you are just a bastard after all!" shouts another.

They are all silenced however when the wailing increases in volume, being mixed with a faint scent of ozone and a feeling of complete danger.

Colbert maneuvers in front of his students brandishing his staff towards the cloud and the utter sense of wrongness that continued to pour from it. He freezes when the wails cease and the smoke starts to clear, taking a step back and shouting

"Children, get inside. NOW!!"

For once not a single young noble argued, some using their magic to levitate towards the academy dormitories as others simply run as if the devil himself were pursuing - their familiars acting in a similar state of panic.

As Colbert turns back towards the now clear field he catches the last glimpse of an image of utter madness, an oval leading into a realm of which escapes the screams of the mad and the ever suffering. Thousands of faces, places and emotions flashing by his eyes and rendering him still as a statue as his brain struggles to comprehend what's in front of him. The very last thing his conscious brain detects is a small leg being pulled the rest of the way through the rip in reality before somethingthat should not exist emerges and then he saw no more.


An eternity seemed to go by in front of her eyes. Hundreds of billions of lives being extinguished and being reborn over and over before her eyes, the cries of millions of men and women as they die alone and forgotten echoing through her mind. The very walls of reality contorting and dying around her as others reach out for her from all sides. Growling and grasping as they try to pull her deeper into the never ending sea - the everlasting abyss.

The sound of laughter echos all around her, cruel and inhuman as a chorus of thousands promise her unending agony at their hands.

And then it stops.

All she sees is gold, a great warm light encompassing her being as the things recoil in fear and disgust, one word echoing through her head.

"Anathema."

"She is OURS!" she hears, sounding as if a thousand speak as one the tone filled with utter malice and hatred.

But then another voice speaks up, deep and strong - filling her with warmth and hope even as her brain starts to shut itself off in order to save her from the utter wrongness of where she is.

"You will not have her. Not now, not ever."

And then everything goes black, but somehow in the back of her head. Just in the last seconds of consciousness - Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière knew she would be okay.


A.N

So this is a plot bunny that's been floating around for awhile, might be a one shot - might get continued. Depends on how y'all receive it to be honest.

Not very long, I know. But it was mainly just me getting an idea down onto the metaphorical paper. If it's continued chapters would be much longer.

Please as always leave your thoughts in a review

- ThatoneFrakkingCommissar

(Note spacing is weird because it was written on mobile. I'll fix it when I next get my PC available - just bear with the wall of text I promise it's just a one off thing.)