The Inquisitorial Storm Troopers opened fire. Las blast after las blast were unleashed at the Exodites. A shimmering dome of force instantly sprang into being, protecting most of the Exodites, but several outside were cut down from the massed fire. Shock and anger filled Basil. Why? He asked the question but he already knew the answer.
Did you think defeating me where the barrier separating us is so weak would be that easy? I played you, child. Laughter followed the voice in Basil's head. A voice that Basil knew the origin. Caorthannach had possessed Lerriksen, possessed the closest thing to a friend he had left after Matthias' death. You know he is suffering, don't you? Caorthannach asked. Suffering because you ordered him to not engage the Exodites and now he is betraying your order because he cannot help himself. His suffering is delicious.
In that instant Basil made a decision.
You are the closest thing to a friend I have now that Matthias is gone, Basil said, reaching out to Lerriksen. Please forgive me. He turned his mind toward the Keeper. Take me instead, Basil said to Caorthannach. I will let you do it. He immediately felt shock. Shock coming from the Witch behind him and shock coming from Caorthannach itself.
The next instant was damnation for Basil.
His will locked with the Keeper he had invited in. Locked with his stubbornness and power against the daemon. I will not let you control me! Basil screamed inside his head. And Basil knew he was found wanting as he screamed it.
You made the choice! Caorthannach screamed with glee. You cannot back out of it, the Keeper laughed.
Basil saw through his own eyes but could do nothing as the Keeper turned his body around and looked to the standing stones of the World Spirit. The company of Troopers continued firing at the Exodites while Siân Aanwen continued to protect them. Basil flailed about, a prisoner within his own mind. Memories and regrets danced around him. Women he had seen and longed for. Foods he had wished to taste. The Maxell soldiers he killed. The Frateris Templars he killed and the Troopers who died under his command. If I could just grab onto something, something to use as a fulcrum, Basil screamed in frustration. But he flailed about helplessly trapped in a bubble of his own mind. Flailed about as the images and memories bounced away from his touch.
Now, I will use your power, young Basil, Caorthannach laughed. Use your power to rip the barrier asunder and envelop this world with the Warp. Then I will neuter you and step onto this ground myself. It will be my playground where I feast on the World Spirit and you will be my jester, not only forced to watch this world's degeneration, but forced to participate in and enjoy it. You will perform for me. Not only that, I will breach the Webway through the World Spirit and make it part of my palace too.
Basil's hands reached out toward the standing stones and he began to draw upon the Warp, draw it in past what he thought he ever could, but he was not in control of it, Caorthannach was. And the Keeper began to wrestle with the barrier between the Warp and Reality, began to tear it. Basil flailed around, helpless.
Aw, look at the Witch, Caorthannach said, pausing in his work to savor Siân Aanwen's pain. She admired you and wanted to see you with a smile on your face. This is such a heart-rending play happening before me. I think I might cry. The Keeper laughed again.
But Basil heard something else alongside the Keeper's laughter, almost an echo. An echo of the Keeper's laughter. What is that? Basil wondered. He didn't know but it gave him something to focus on.
And then he saw it.
Saw Siân Aanwen's sorrow for him radiating around her into the Warp, saw it drifting into and being supped up by the Keeper. Saw his sorrow being allowed to bleed out to her by the Keeper. His sorrow being bled to her and recursively strengthening her sorrow with his, all the while the Keeper grew fatter on her emotions.
And the laughter that had once been an echo in Basil's mind grew louder until he heard nothing else.
Basil snatched that link between himself and Siân Aanwen. He snatched it and used it as a fulcrum, a pivot that he used to direct his mind, a force multiplier, calming himself and centering his mind. And with that force multiplier, Basil reversed their positions, made the Keeper a prisoner in his mind. He engulfed Caorthannach's psychic existence with his will and squeezed down upon it from everywhere at once. I will crush you into nothingness! Basil screamed.
Basil felt the Keeper's terror as he crushed down upon it with a grasp of order. Caorthannach sought everywhere for a way out but could not find one. In the Warp the Keeper could move wherever it wanted, whenever it wanted, but within Basil's mind only the dimensions he wished were allowed. And he left no dimension for escape.
Panic gripped the Keeper.
But Basil's mind began to grow weary. I'm not strong enough, he realized. Not skilled enough to nullify it. He folded his will around the Keeper once again, yet he left a way out.
Out sprang the Keeper, momentarily visible to all, if in humbled form rather than glory. Caorthannach was a nearly translucent purple with golden burns that wrapped around its beak and the entity had no claws on its arms or feet. No evidence of removal, they simply were not there. Fear filled its eyes.
And then it was gone.
Basil collapsed to his knees and stared at the ground. Stared at the Imperial Aquila atop his force staff lying on the ground beneath him. No sounds of las blasts or autocannons reached his ears. A voice in the background was saying something. Is that Lerriksen? He felt, and saw, black gauntleted hands grabbing his right arm and lifting him up. He felt, and saw, slender pale fingers wrap themselves around his left arm and help lift him up. Basil raised his head. On his right stood Lerriksen with visor raised and staring at him while on his left stood Siân Aanwen, her mask raised, allowing him to see her emerald eyes for the first time. Basil raised his visor and then glanced around without saying anything. The Storm Trooper company was standing silently and watching him while the remaining Exodites were nervously glancing between him, and the Troopers, and their dead.
"I don't know what to say, kid," Lerriksen said. "You suffered that for me?"
Basil smirked at the Trooper. "You're the closest thing to a friend I've got left," he said. "Well, that, and I'm stupid."
Lerriksen slapped Basil on top the head. "I guess I'm glad you somehow survived having that helmet blown off your head a few years back."
"I knew they wouldn't break you," Siân Aanwen interrupted in Low Gothic.
"You knew that the Keeper would be here like you knew that day four years ago?" Basil asked her.
"No and no," she replied. "I was there years ago simply by chance, visiting the world's inhabitants. I look after them. Today was different. I had a vision. A vision that I would find you here and a vision that I must take you to the Black Library," the Witch added. "Now that you've cast off the yoke of a daemon by yourself, I believe they will allow your entry."
"The Black Library?" Basil stated as a question, half in awe from what little knowledge he had garnered of it in his short life. The traitor Tech-Priests have been destroyed, Basil pointed out to himself. And The Resolute will make short work of the Omnissiah's Blessing. A slow fuel carrier will have no chance against a capital ship with lance batteries, he concluded. Draegoth and Sirsay will look in on Masina and determine if anything needs to be done. "Lerriksen, gather the men and the dead, then return to the Lander. Bury the dead in the clearing and then rest. Make contact with The Resolute and have it pick you up. I will let you determine how long to wait for me based upon supplies."
"Yes, Commander Cadmus," Lerriksen replied.
Basil turned back to the Witch and his staff floated up to his hand as he did so. "I'm ready to leave whenever you are."
