DIsclaimer: I don't own warhammer 40k, I don't understand why we have to list this especially when its on a fanfiction site.
I'm sorry about how slow I've been with this, I'm not abandoning this anytime soon so please don't lose hope, be sure to give me feedback in my pms and thanks for reading the last chapter.
Chapter 2 - Trajann POV
The Sanctum Imperialis was huge, eclipsing every structure surrounding it ten to one, its Auramite tip extending into the upper stratosphere, piercing far above the clouds to spread the emperors astronomicon to the far reaches of the galaxy. Around it lied monuments to countless heroes who all sacrificed their lives so the emperor's greatest creation, the imperium might live on. From the column of glory hanged the heroes of the siege of terra, giving their lives to defend their creator against all odds, the tower of heroes stood as well, only ringing when the greatest of imperium soldiery dies in the line of duty and finally the pillar of bone, a remnant of the imperial fists bastion on the planet, now no more than ruins for 10 Millenia. Their sacrifices were now immortalized in the holiest place in the imperium, forever destined to be the wardens of the imperial palace. Trajann saw all of these while he walked to his destination, admiring their commitment and bravery in a battle against all odds, their devotion to the emperor only matched by the Adeptus Custodes. His destination however was the sacred meeting place of the Adeptus Custodes, where the leaders of all the shield hosts in the emperor's personal guard would convene at the order of the Captain-General. Trajann held that position currently, and today's meeting would be the most important one in the last 10000 years.
He arrived before 2 colossal doors that would have required 10 mortal men to open, even a space marine would have trouble with them, but for a Custodes it was an easy task, opening those massive doors he was greeted by a room lined with the armor of Custodes long dead who had served the emperor well in their time, their baroque armor polished to perfection and shining in their brilliance, in the middle was a table made from a special type of wood that came from a Terran tree long extinct by humanities hand. Figures sat around the table dressed in the signature golden armor so reminiscent of the Custodes, colored in a variety of different livery representing every shield host and company in the Adeptus Custodes, the air was tense, usually, Custodes of every company would not convene, only at the ceremony where he ascended to the rank of the Captain-general did he see so many representatives of the Shield Hosts in one place before. There was no reason to keep the air so stale and silent, he had gathered them for the reason, so he started talking.
"Fellow Custodes, I have called you all here for a reason, something has been found in the dark cells, something we have yet to decide if it is dangerous or not, the Shadowkeepers know of this already, they were the ones who discovered it in the first place and I see no reason to keep this from you too", Trajann paused, all around the room the Custodes felt a little bit more curious as to what this something was, to a mortals eye they were sitting still, seeming uncaring about this new information but he could tell, a slight movement here or there told him everything about what the Custodes was feeling, silence permeated the room, they were waiting for Trajann to continue, but in the end, it wasn't him who breached the silence but the head Apothecary of the Custodes.
"I assume this has something to do with you bringing a female infant into the aspirant nursery", the chief apothecary had a strange look to him, as if already knowing the answer to what Trajann would reveal to the rest of the group, the apothecary stood up and strolled leisurely around the room hands behind his back as he circled the table, "extra organs, an almost perfect genetic code and enough physic power as to make the sanctioned psykers near my nursery shudder, just what have you brought into my Apothecarium"
"How do you know about that, I left that place 5 hours ago, you couldn't have done a scan in that amount of time", Trajann said investigatively
"You underestimate our skill, we're quick and efficient, all the machinery was in place because it was a den for aspirants and we wondered what was so special about the child that the Captain-General himself brought her in", the Custodes stared at Trajann accusingly, waiting for him to spill the beans on the matter.
"Sit back down apothecary, I wouldn't have gathered you all here if I wasn't going to tell you about this", the Custodes relaxed a bit, perhaps wondering if Trajann would dare keep a secret from the rest of the Emperor's guard "the child was found behind a wall in the dark cells, Borsa alerted me and only me to this and we investigated it together, what we found was the infant beside a broken stasis field as well as several files on her gestation, genetic code, and technology which was presumably designed specifically for her usage, the data suggests that this infant is special, made during the Horus Heresy, according to the evidence it is my belief that the child is the 21st Primarch made by the emperor", the effect was immediately visible, some Custodes recoiled, others leaned in more perhaps hoping to get more information about this supposed 21st Primarch but most stayed silent, slightly shaken by this new information but nevertheless unaffected.
"Who else knows?", a robotic voice crackled, out of the shadows a hulking figure stepped out of the shadows, its servos whirring and ground shaking at its every step, its golden armor glistening in the light it stepped toward the table which was tiny in comparison to itself, the Venerable Dreadnought Alric had spoken for the first time since it was awoken from its slumber of a thousand years,
"Only you men, me and the Magos Vriken, who assisted in bringing the electrical instruments online in the room where the infant was housed", the venerable dreadnought stayed still seemingly satisfied by the answer Trajann gave, "Magos Vriken insist that we alert the grey knights of this and ask them to personally comb the infant for corruption as well as conduct a drawing of the emperor's tarot, does anyone have any objections to this assessment", Custodes around the room stayed silent, it was a perfectly normal assessment to the situation, considering that the child had been found in a room next to the most horrifying warp anomalies in existence.
"Have you informed the grey knights yet about this", questioned the leader of the dread host, Kallisarian was his name, although relatively new and inexperienced compared to the rest of the Custodes in the room, he had proved himself in battle, earning himself the rank of captain of the dread host.
"No, I plan to ask Magos Vriken to travel to titan and inform the Grey Knights of this new development on Terra, only a select few Grey Knights will be informed and one of the grandmasters will arrive to personally investigate the infant and the circumstances of her finding"
"She's no warp trick, she biologically sound, it's the corruption that is the problem, although she shows no signs of it physically, the seeds of corruption could already be planted, just like with the traitor Primarchs", the Chief apothecary had decided to interject into the conversation once again, relaxing some of the Custodians with the new information.
"I suggest we inform our respective companies of this discovery immediately", the robotic voice of Venerable Dreadnought Alric crackled in the room once again "word is going to spread, questions will arise as to why a female infant as brought into the aspirant den, let us inform them until the unrest gets out of hand", the Custodians all nodded at Alrics suggestion, no secrets would be kept from other Custodes, even if it was one that could shake the foundations of holy terra if word got out from the Imperial Palace.
"So, any more questions?", the room stayed quiet, Trajann could see that they were satisfied with the information given, "This meeting is adjourned, I ask that you inform your companies about this new development and prepare for the imminent arrival of Grey Knights", at his word they all promptly stood up and walked out of the room with Trajann, as soon as he walked out of the room he was greeted by Magos Vriken.
"I trust you have already agreed to my plan of action?", crackled Magos Vriken through his vox box.
"We have, I am entrusting you with the responsibility of contacting the grey knights, I expect them to be here before the sun goes down", replied the Custodes.
"It will be done", was all that Magos Vriken said before he crawled away with his mechanendrites.
Parting with the Magos he strided down the hallways of the Sanctum Imperialis, admiring the decorations that adorned each wall, each the masterpiece of a mortal long dead, painstkaingly made to stand out among the thousands of sculptures, painting and works of art in this palace. His destination was the nursery, to meet with the chief apothecary who conducted his biological scans on the infant, hoping to shed light on the childs genetic makeup.
The apothecarium was small compared to the massive structures that accompanied it, filled with technological miracles that would have made a genetor sell out his closest colleagues to even get a glimpse off and skilled personal who would make any normal apothecary look like a child with a scalpel. The automatic doors opening seamlessly as he approached, the white walls looked modern, reminiscent of ancient pict captures of apothecariums back in the 2nd Millenium, oh if they could see us now, wondrous technologies they could have hardly dreamed of and structures larger that cities, no doubt they would have been proud of the imperium. Apothecaries stared at him, granting him a nod of acknowledgment as he walked past, the Chief Apothecary should have informed them by now of the recent revelations.
The Chief Apothecaries Laboratory was large, encompassing ⅓ of the entire apothecarium, perks of becoming the leader of a Shield-Company, the inside was filled to the brim to medical wonders, all created for the sole purpose of healing Custodes or further propagating the Chief Apothecaries research. In the center of the room surrounded by vials of unknown liquid and monitors displaying genetic helixes was the Chief Apothecary, he opened his mouth to greet the man but he was immediately interrupted.
"Captain-General, I assume that you're here for the scans?", the Apothecary asked rhetorically.
"Correct, I also want your opinion on her biology and genetic makeup, I want to know exactly what we're dealing with right now"
"Well we're dealing with a child…", the Chief Apothecary said sarcastically, after that the Captain-General just stared at the Apothecary judgingly for what seemed like an eternity before the Apothecary started again.
"We found several organs that are not in our catalog, we assume them to be organs specially designed in her creation instead of preexisting organs that were used in the original primarchs, we don't know what they do, we need some days before we can form a hypothesis on their function, perhaps a biomancy specialist from the grey knights could shed further light on this topic"
"Alright, but any reasons why she is a female instead of a male like the rest of the primarchs?", slightly irritated by the Apothecary's lack of insight on the function of these new organs.
The apothecary just shrugged his shoulders and said "Perhaps the emperor found it difficult to genetically engineer the Y gene to the new specifications and decided that a female would be the best way to go forward, that is all I know, the only person in the imperial palace who knows more about the child is sitting on the golden throne", Trajann processed this information, he hoped the grey knights would be here soon, that way we could know more.
"Can I have a ballpark estimate on how long you require until your hypothesis is done?"
"A week or so, that biomancer would speed things up quite a bit"
"So I don't have to beg the grey knights for specifically a biomacy specialist which they prize in their chapter?", the Apothecary stood motionless and then turned to him, looking up from his datapad in his hand.
"That wasn't a request"
"Alright so a biomancy specialist it is", with that, he backed out of the room and pondered on what to spend the time he had left before the Grey Knights arrived.
He took some of the time he had left to visit the infant, she was in that cot, sleeping while power emanated from her that blew the few librarians he knew straight out of the water. He could spot the Apothecaries also taking a liking to the child, taking glances or looks from the Apothecaries when they were supposed to be observing the future aspirants. It was hard to believe a child like this could be corrupted in any way, she seemed too innocent and oblivious to the horrors of the world to ever be drawn to such infernal beings. Her white skin was as smooth, like the old Terran saying 'Smooth as a baby's bottom', it probably was because she was a baby, but the point stood nonetheless. Suddenly her eyes opened, the pupils were a deep blue, lighter than the ultramarine blue of macragge's oceans but darker than the glow of a power sword. He had never noticed them before now, but they were eyes that every noblewoman in the Imperium would kill for, at least until blue would fall out of fashion in the imperial courts. So entranced by the eyes he was that he was only broken out of it when she started to cry, for the first time in some decades, the Captain-General did not know what to do.
"She's Hungry", he turned around and a Custode stood before him, he was dressed in the Apothecaries usual livery of red and white, his armor engraved with the universal symbol of the Apothecarium, a depiction of a snake wrapped around a staff. "This ravenous creature is depleting my nutrient stock!, I just fed her an hour ago and she's still hungry!"
"Feed her well, this ravenous creature might just be the 21st primarch", he saw the Apothecary flinch, but nevertheless he continued talking.
"21st primarch or not, I don't have an agri world to supply me with nutrients"
"You're a Custode for the Emperors sake, just board a supply ship and steal a few crates", Trjann said mockingly
"Alright, here I go stealing a ship and a few crates of food, how suspicious do you think that is!", Trajann never thought about it that way, but either way this was the aspirant den, they were supposed to have food to last aspirants up to adulthood, "You have supplies here don't you?"
"Supplies that won't last until the next food shipment, if this continues I won't have enough for 2 years"
"Then cover it up, make some fantasy story about how there's a way to make aspirants grow faster or something, just say it requires food, a LOT of food"
"I need your signature for that to work through, the Adeptus Ministratum won't like that some of the food on their ships is going missing"
"Give me a pen", he ordered, immediately the Apothecary pulled out a pen and paper from a desk near him, Trajann grabbed both the pen and paper and scribbled a signature down. "Now go steal some food shipments, and for the Emperor's sake SOMEONE FEED THIS CHILD!"
He had exited the Apothecarium frustrated, contemplating on how to deal with the officials that would swarm the Senatorum Imperialis asking for an audience with him, wondering why their food shipment was missing several crates of nutrients. He always hated dealing with politics, he was a warrior, not a speaker, as long as the necessary materials flowed to the imperial palace he had no quarrel with the nobles who called themselves the high lords of terra, the Emperor would have named them the wide lords of terra if he saw them today, the tubs of lard grew fat on the riches of humanities throneworld, he knew of only a select amount of high lords who were competent enough to run their agencies and even they were few and far between, he hoped that one day someone would smite these fools from across holy terra, it would serve them right for their crimes against the Imperium.
In the distance, jet engines could be heard, the bustle of interstellar traffic permeating the Imperial Palace. The spaceport rumbled with the arrival of tithes and shipments from all over his majesty's imperium, the plasma burn of the engines of a thousand starships lit up the sky even in the day. Transports touched down onto the spaceport en masse, furiously unloading as swiftly as they could, servitors shuffled around mindlessly, assisting the crew members with unloading their myriad supplies. In the distance he spotted a speck, its silver armor glinting in humanities sun, the speck drew closer and closer, its outline becoming clearer as it flew, as it crossed into the glare of humanities birth star he could just barely make it out, it had a boxy appearance, like a brick that decided that it could fly that day. His superhuman eyes strained themselves against the light of the sun trying to make out its sigils, on its broadside was engraved a book with a sword rested upon it, only one chapter in the imperium could claim it as theirs, it was the Grey Knights, physic Astartes wholly committed to the emperor with the power to banish greater daemons, no contest to Custodes but their physic powers were still useful to the Imperium. The vehicle the Astartes used for transport was called a thunderhawk, surprisingly sturdy and reliable for a flying machine but lacked the grace and subtlety of Custodes vehicles.
As it neared he could hear its plasma thrusters, their loud vehicles were a far cry to the silent hum of the vehicles he was used to. Its landing legs unfurled when it made its final descent, the landing pad shook from the pressure of the descent thrusters struggled to slow down the cumbersome vessel. When its landing legs touched the landing pad the noise was gone, the descent thrusters had deactivated and the thunderhawk had safely landed in the imperial palace. It stood there for a while, unmoving as it roosted itself onto the floor until suddenly the bay doors opened, and the knights stepped out.
"Impressive aren't they", he turned around quickly before realizing it was Borsa, it took a special type of man to be able to sneak up on a Custodes and that could only be another Custodes.
"You surprised me, Borsa", said Trajann, still a little bit surprised from his sudden entrance.
"I'm not supposed to be surprising you, we're supposed to be surprising them with a 21st primarch and all that"
"Magos Vriken has informed them already"
"We should have been there to see the looks on their faces", Trajann chuckled a little bit, if that piece of information shook Custodes, imagine what it could do to a fanatic like a Grey Knight.
Clad in silver armor and bearing the symbol of the Grey Knights they stepped out into the light of Terra's sun. Their ancient armor glinted in the sun, polished to perfection by countless tech-priests and chapter serfs. Their helmets were angular, only 2 menacing eyepieces remained separate from the rest of the helmet plate, glowing an electric blue that seemed to glare into his very soul. One stood out from the rest of them, stepping out of the dark interior of the thunderhawk was a Grey Knight without his helmet, his face was chiseled, bearing scars of a thousand battles, confirming his dedication to the emperor. He stared at the man, analyzing his every move, and the man stared back.
"I trust that Magos Vriken has informed you of this discovery Astartes?", Borsa talked first, taking the initiative.
"The Magos has told us all we need to know, however, I must ask of you not to broadcast this information to all of Titan but personally to the grandmasters, I didn't even know it was possible to make an Astartes faint until this morning!"
"We appreciate you arriving here on such short notice", Trajann spoke up, the Grey Knight turned his attention to him instead of Borsa and replied.
"New primarchs are not something we should wait around for"
"Truer words never were spoken, but regardless I hope that you are ready to conduct your examination", Trajann said this knowing what the answer was, the question was never meant to inquire but to remind them of their task at hand.
"Indeed we are, but I suggest we make haste I would like to see this child for myself"
"Agreed, she was placed in the care of the Apothecaries, at present she is in the aspirant den", a near-instantaneous reply greeted the Grey Knight, he put his hand on the grey knights 'shoulder' and asked, "Before we go may I inquire as to your name?"
"Vardan Kai, the current grandmaster of the Grey Knights 1st brotherhood", the Grey Knight extended his hand as if signaling the Custodes to shake it, an ancient gesture of greetings dating back to humanities founding. He obliged firmly taking the Grey Knights hand and shook it firmly, a mortals hand would have been crushed into a red paste but for a posthuman soldier it was nothing, "May I ask yours?".
"Trajann Valoris, Captain-General of the Adeptus Custodes", the Grey knight acknowledged his name.
"Then with the formalities out of the way, I suggest we move on to the objective"
"Agreed, I suggest you follow me, the palace is massive and is not particularly easy to navigate to newcomers"
"Thank you for your assistance", upon finishing their conversation they wasted no time on going to the Apothecarium, the situation that could affect the entire imperium was not something to keep waiting.
They turned plenty of heads as they stomped towards their goal, the Grey Knights were extremely secretive and the mortals definitely would not know of them, hell not even the high lords of terra were supposed to know of them! Arriving in front of the Apothecarium he could visibly see the Grey Knights flinching before the place, wincing at the doors of the Apothecarium.
"Is something the matter?", Trajann said, the Grandmaster was still, his eyes wide open and he was trembling oblong with his brothers, his resilience was far beyond the ability of his brothers hardened by years of experience but this proved too much for him.
"What monster do you have in here?", the Grey Knight trembled, pointing exactly at the part of the building where the aspirant den was located.
"The child is there, you seem to be trembling grandmaster, is something a problem"
"By the throne, this power… It's like staring directly into a miniature sun"
"We haven't even got into the building yet?", Trajann said confusingly.
"In the Immaterium material walls mean nothing, her power shines brightly there, even from this distance it blinds me", the Grey Knight snapped out of his infatuation with staring at the aspirant den and at Trajann. "This.. Potential, it is far beyond any Grey Knight since the Horus Heresy. To comb that for corruption would require power greater than hers, and the only one I know of who is more powerful is sitting on the throne"
"Then what is our next course of action", Trajann tensed, he now understood why the sanctioned psykers coming to the palace were so apprehensive to nearing the Apothecarium, looking at this place must have been the equivalent of having a lasgun shone in your face.
"Her soul… It's so bright! The seeping corruption of souls are burned away in her presence, she is more powerful than any Grey Knight by orders of magnitude!" The Grey Knight had awe in his eyes, clearing admiring this new power.
"That didn't answer my question", Trajann said monotingly, clearly not sensing the incredible power before him
"The emperor will decide her fate where we cannot, I suggest we move on to our next task, the emperor's tarot will divine her path", Trajann had not expected this, Grey Knights were notorious for their determination and will to carry out their tasks without fail, to so abruptly dismiss was decidedly uncharacteristic of a Grey Knight, especially a Grandmaster. However, he had no reason to believe the Grandmaster's sense of reason was influenced in any kind.
"Very well, we shall conduct the emperor's tarot in the Imperial Palace, do you require anything?"
"Do you think we came utterly unprepared?" Vardan said rhetorically "I have the psychoactive cards with me and my Grey Knights will do the Tarot with me, the Grey Knights are accustomed to drawing the emperor's tarot", no other words were exchanged, for no words were needed before the left for the inner palace.
The room was not as grand as the Custode meeting place, however it was a room nonetheless. The doors were not as grand, functional, but lacked the refined decoration of the rest of the palace. It was a simple room, with a table in the middle, lit by a hanging lamp which seemed to only illuminate the center of the room. Grey Knights lined the center, staring at the cards laid out on the table. On the outskirts of the room stood the Custodes patiently watching the table for any sign of activity, anticipating the coming revelations. The Grey Knight shuffled the cards in his hands, quietly muttering to himself while the cards shifted in his hands. Finishing the shuffling he took 3 cards out of the deck, gently placing them facing down on the table. The Custodes in the room still stared, they were experienced with the tarot, they had used many warp seers to divine if there were any threats to the emperor over the years and could interpret the combination of cards.
"We will now commence", Vardan said with a noticeable pressure in his voice, as far as he could divine from the warpseers he worked close with, being so near the crushing weight of the Emperors's psychic might was a burden to most psykers.
The cards were laid out on the table horizontally, only illuminated by the lone lamp in the room, the Grey knight carefully moved his bulky hand to flip over the lefternmost card, careful not to disturb the rest of the cards. On the front lay an image, a lone warrior, younger than the people here by centuries, standing amidst a field littered with the bodies of his enemies, pockered with craters made from thousands of shells from every corner of the imperium.
"I have not seen this for a long time, The Young Warrior is a card I haven't drawn in a long time", the Custodes, tired with the wordplay, spoke.
"What does it mean?", one of the Custodes said inquisitively
"A warrior will rise, under the right guidance she will prevail against all threats", satisfied with the answer the Custode shrugged in acceptance.
Not satisfied however, was the Grey Knight, not content to finish the drawing with one card he began with the next one, the middle one was ripe for the picking. It revealed The Daemon inverted, it needed no introduction, the Custodes were familiar with this particular card, normally it signified the corruption of worlds, but inverted it meant the burning away of the corruption, to pull it up by its roots and cast it back to oblivion.
"A good omen, she will become anathema to the warpborn, inimical to their existence, they will quiver before her, her physic power will banish many a greater daemon from the materium", the Grey Knight clearly was also accustomed with the card, their main job was to banish greater daemons, they probably received this card for a lot of their adepts.
"So, what does this combination mean?", Trajann said, the individual cards were not the deciding factors however, the combination and its interpretation meant everything.
"Patience Custode, the Emperor's tarot is not something you rush", Vardan said, seemingly detached from the atmosphere in the room, "The combination is made with 3 cards not 2"
The third lade there elusively, as careful as he could he slowly hovered his hand over the card, lowering it slowly and shifting the card on its back. The last card revealed itself, it was the picture of the gates, a silver door carved with exquisite runes and fine handicraft, the Custodes gasped, those very doors were outside of the room right now, it was the entrance to the emperor's throne room, to draw this card was to be welcomed as a hero, one who would garner the attention of the emperor himself, the Grey Knights seemed similarly shocked, frozen in the moment of realization.
"O-only one combination has the silver doors in it…", Vardan trembled, the new knowledge wore down his stoic exterior, revealing his awe, "T-this combination hasn't been drawn since the Great Crusade, and to my knowledge only was given in the case of the discovery of a primarch to be granted this is t-to be given an immediate audience with the emperor"
The Custodes around the room shuddered, for 10000 years only Custodes were given the privilege of being near the Emperor, to one to be given it so suddenly, even if it was a primarch whose biological age was barely 2 days old was vexing to the Custodes. In the shocked silence the Custode was not completely inept and seconds later started giving orders again.
"You heard the tarot, she is to be given immediate entrance, not entrance after you are done gawking, I expect to see the child outside the doors immediately" Reflex kicked in and the Custodes immediately carried out their orders, filing outside the room to head to the Apothecarium to pick up the precious cargo. Walking out with them he was greeted by two Custodes dressed in the livery of the Shadowseers as well as the Dread Host.
"So, How did it go", Borsa said questioningly, such was the nature of Shadowseers to be inquisitive and too curious for their own good.
"She is to be granted immediate audience with the emperor", their eyes widened at the prospect, clearly surprised by this sudden development.
"Let her in, only the Custodes have that privilege, we don't even know if she is corrupted yet?!", Kalissarian said aggressively, the Dread Host was known for being hot blooded and had a lack of patience.
"You dare question the words of the Captain-General himself", Borsa rarely raised his voice, usually it was a sign that Custodes were to restrain themselves, but Kalissarian was too inexperienced to know this, having recently ascended to leader of the Dread-Host.
"I do not, I merely question if this action is wise", the leader of the Dread Host said gruffly, "Noone has been given access to the emperor's chambers except the Custodes!"
"His word is the emperor's word!, you are out of line Kalissarian", Borsa thundered back, his words laced with annoyance.
"I quest-"
"ENOUGH", Trajann shouted, frustrated by the young Custodes impudence, "the emperor's tarot has decided this, not me, Vardan too believes the child is uncorrupted, as for the Custodes supposed monopoly on the attention of the emperor, primarchs have that same privilege as well"
Kallisarian stepped back, remembering his duty and the position which the Captain-General held.
"We will bring the child into the throne room, let the emperor see his child, it's been 10000 years too long since last time", Trajann said calmly, different from his attitude moments ago. "Let us go, the Custodes I sent will be back soon, I will not keep my liege waiting"
He left and the rest followed suite, humbled by his words but eager to see the god-emperor once again.
The entrance to the throne room was vast and beautifully articulate, its carvings were made by the most skilled craftsman in the human race, wasting away their meager lives to have a chance to surrender their masterworks to be displayed among countless others, to spend eternity in the such proximity to the emperor's light. He never paid much attention to the works of art surrounding him, it was wasteful, that time would have been better spent thickening the walls a little more, bolstering the armoury stockpile a little more or at least designing more security measures for the sanctum. Instead they were used to make works of art that served no other purpose than to amaze the few people who still had access to the palace.
"Captain-General", slightly startling him he was suddenly greeted by the voice of the Custode he sent away, they were back finally.
"You have her?", he asked even though he knew the answer preemptively.
"Affirmative Captain-General", turning around his sight was greeted by the Custodes who was holding a basket, inside the basket was an various assortment of standard issue aspirant blankets and primarch, there was only quiet coming from the basket, leading Trajann to believe she was asleep, as any time she was awake she would cry. The Custode stuck his hand out with the basket, gesturing for the Captain-General to take it.
Taking the basket he carefully held it, he was holding the most valuable item in the imperium at the moment. Throughout his life he had held various valuable things, his guardian spear for example, space marine chapters would have surrendered their stock of terminator armour for a batch of those, but this was an entirely different matter.
"Are primarchs usually this quiet?", Kalisarrian curiously asked, the Custode leaning over the basket held in Trajann's hands to have his own look at the primarch.
"That's because it's asleep, when it's awake.. Well… If you thought the howling banshees were loud, think again.", Trajann caught a glimpse from Borsa, seemingly shivering at the memory. "Better question yet, do we call her a primarch or a primarchess?"
"Of course not, Primarch is a term which… I recant that, I think we do have to call her a primarchess… But then again, maybe not", before Kalissarian was about to launch into a long tirade of if it was literally accurate to call primarchess or not Trajann interrupted.
"That is a profound question that we can discuss later, a scribe will probably spend hours on that one question but right now I have a child and an expectant emperor behind these doors", Kalissarian closed his mouth, but still looked deep in thought, seemingly trying to remember the language classes he paid so little attention to in his youth.
The doors opened, its superior craftsmanship made it so that it was unnaturally quiet when opened, making it glide smoothly across the floor. The aura suddenly changed, despite not being a psyker he could feel the ambient power from the man on the throne. It blinded him in its brilliance, he was familiar with this, he spent centuries in the companions but even with that experience he still was awed by his lieges power. Comparing the power of his liege and the one in his arms, he could see the similarities. Though the gap between their powers were vast the signature or the 'frequency' of the aura were the same.
He stepped into the chamber, flanked by Kalissarian and Borsa, kneeling down onto the marble floor, arms outstretched to present the child. He felt the light grow brighter, almost burning him in its magnificence, but the child remained untouched, instead it looked happy, smiling with a large grin so rarely seen in the imperium these days. Suddenly a booming voice echoed throughout the chamber, reverberating throughout the palace, saying, "Take care of her", he looked around, recovering quickly from the shock, the Custodes around were in confusion raising their weapons in response to the noise, he saw who it came from, for the first time in 10000 years the man on the golden throne spoke, it was an order, a directive from his liege, one such at this did not come since the Horus Heresy, and he would oblige.
Some say, that day the astronomicon grew brightest, ships on the brink of being lost in the warp found it again, finally reaching their destinations, warp storms dissipated, the light of the astronomicon calming the warp to allow astropathic message and ships to go through it. Psykers all over the imperium rediscovered the presence of the emperor, driving themselves to greater acts of power and valor in response. The number of saints in the imperium grew tenfold, pushing back the enemies of man on all fronts while people volunteering for the imperial guard got to an all time high. The High lords of terra looked at the information given to them, it was obvious something had changed, the Custodes were acting even more secretive than usual in the face of these developments, something had happened in the imperial palace, and they were eager to found out what.