Early 36th Millennium, dawn of the Plague of Unbelief
Webway route leading to Maesyfed
Within minutes, Basil had donned his carapace armour and the pair had left the Black Library. No sooner had they started away from the ancient craftworld, did it disappear, for it moved away from them as surely as they did from it.
Onward, Basil walked in silence, his mind on the Aeldari who walked beside him, the 'mistress' who had led him in the dance they shared. What is she thinking about? Basil asked himself. Certainly not me, she has the Exodites to think of, he added. And I need to think of the duties I have left unmet while studying in the Black Library. Basil kept his gaze focused straight ahead on the Webway before him, alert to danger, but his mind continued to wander. Thoughts of Siân's hand on his neck, her hips touching his, kept trying to force their way in. Did she just glance over at me? Basil asked himself when he noticed a flicker of movement from the corner of his eye. He dismissed the thought and continued walking, side by side with her, although his feet felt heavy.
After no more than an hour, much shorter than the time they took to reach the Black Library, Basil and Siân reached the gate to the Exodite world.
Siân turned to Basil with a small smile that hinted at sadness in her eyes. To his surprise she reached out and took hold of his hands, one in each of hers. "We're here," she said. "I know you must go on, but will you not come through with me, if just but for a moment?" she asked. "I would like to give the people you helped save the opportunity to thank you. A reminder that the human who fought to help them a century before is still alive. It will not take long to call them."
Basil nodded, glad for the opportunity to stretch out his time with Siân a little longer, and patiently waited as she opened the gate. He stepped through behind her and froze in shock.
As expected, he was standing in the middle of the circle of rune-decorated menhirs, but the circle was surrounded by carnage. Fresh blood covered the clearing but the only corpses he saw were a handful of what appeared to be cybernetically enhanced humans as well as a few heaps of slag. He saw many Exodites wandering outside the circle. Another battle? Basil asked himself. We left immediately after one, and arrive immediately after another, a century later? He glanced to Siân who was running to the Exodites wandering around. Looking more closely, Basil noticed and recognized several of their faces from the battle nearly a century before. And he matched their wounds and clothing to the same wounds and clothing he remembered in that battle long before. What? He quickly turned his senses up to the sky and realized that the hole he had rent in the Warp and repaired was still as tender as when he had left it. Realization dawned upon Basil.
Siân quickly ran back over to Basil with a bewildered look upon her face. "They told me that we left little more than a few hours ago," she said, confirming what Basil had just realized. "A century seemed to have passed for me, a thought you echoed to Ilronanna." She shrugged. "Anything and everything, including time, can be perceived differently within the Webway."
Basil simply nodded; his mind already having turned to the Stormtroopers he had left under Lerriksen's command. His eyes caught a flicker of movement, and his gaze broke away from Siân to a single figure who approached, a young male Exodite wearing a dark green tunic with a golden coloured headband.
Basil's eyes quickly returned to Siân when she spoke. "He is a messenger," she said. "From another clan, a servant of their Worldsinger." In another moment, the Exodite was upon the pair.
"Siân Aanwen?" asked the messenger in Aeldari as he glanced at Basil with a dismissive look. "I have a message."
"Go on," she replied. When the messenger glanced another time to Basil, a flash of anger appeared in her eyes. She glanced at the messenger and then to all the surrounding Exodites. "This is Basil Cadmus," she snapped. "The young boy who lent me his strength to banish one of She Who Thirst's Keepers from the surface of Múireann. The same one who psychically warned the clans of the threat here today and who banished the Keeper himself." She paused, then added, "The same young human who has just returned from his study in the Black Library. You may relay your message in front of him."
A look of embarrassment flashed across the Exodite's face, then he spoke. "I bear a message from your brother, Oisín," he began, still speaking the Aeldari language. "He arrived through another gate, shortly after we received word you had departed, and spoke with our Worldsinger. She instructed me to tell you that Druthact believes he has found the resting place of the Condenser and is preparing to journey there."
Siân simply stared at the messenger. "I cannot allow that to happen." She glanced at Basil. "I must return to my craftworld and stop them if they haven't already left."
"It is at a place called Ceg Y Neidr," Basil said.
"Ceg Y Neidr?" Siân's eyes lit up.
"The Snake's Mouth," Basil said. "Have you heard of it?"
"Yes," Siân answered. "It is a place of legend. Tales say the Cosmic Serpent swallowed treasures it found and then spit many of them out on a planet. In the tales, that planet was referred to as Ceg Y Neidr and was said to be a step of Saim-Hann, the Quest for Enlightenment. How do you know that is the resting place of the Condenser?"
"Before we left the Black Library, I told you I was searching for a voidship named the Fires of Purgation and that I received a vision of where to find it," Basil said. "I am seeking the voidship because it is the resting place of a psychic Condenser of alien origin that the Tech-Priests who we battled here were also searching for. I believe it is the same artefact your messenger speaks of," Basil said. "The vision I received during the climax of The Dance showed me how to reach it through the Webway. I will find it at Ceg Y Neidr."
"I did not know why you sought this Fires of Purgation," she said. "I will go with you and hopefully the way there from here will be shorter than what path Druthact has found from Rubha Àird Driseig."
"This Druthact is an ancient and powerful Aeldari, is he not?" Basil asked. "And he will be accompanied by other Aeldari? Is preventing him from taking this Condenser so important that you will stand against your own to stop them?"
"Yes," Siân answered.
"Then I will contact Lerriksen and The Resolute and we can leave without further delay," Basil said.
