Kaida was allowed to put on her clothes again, but not her armour and Reptile gave her the cloak to take back to the cabin she was in before. After being led there, she saw that one of the fire warriors was already there, it was clear that he had been taken out of the room; he was topless and covered in bruises. They weren't big bruises that you would expect from violence with space marines, maybe they were inflicted by humans. He was fit and strong as any fire warrior should be, but the memory of Reptile's extreme figure made this tau's body look tiny in comparison. The fire warrior was uninjured when Kaida saw him before.

"What happened to you? You look awful." she asked.

"I've been fighting," said the fire warrior. He started doing practice punches to an invisible target in front of him. "One of the Marines took me away and forced me to fight humans. They watched the fights, and they enjoyed it."

Maybe Kaida was right about marines being brutes. "That's so savage," she commented.

"I enjoyed it," said the fire warrior. This Kaida did not expect, "It's exciting, you know, it's a rush. Every time I landed a punch there was a brutal satisfaction to it. Every time I was hit, it was like someone releasing pressure in my body, like steam from a valve."

"Have you always liked fighting?" asked Kaida, wondering if they had brainwashed him or something.

"I enjoyed our close combat training, what little of it there was; but now I just want to be in that ring again." He stopped rehearsing his combat moves, "What about you? Where did you get that cloak?"

"I got it from Reptile."

"Reptile?"

"He's the Marine that came for me. He didn't make me fight or anything..."

"What did he do with you?" interrupted the fire warrior.

Kaida was embarrassed; she didn't want to give him the full story. "He just... talked to me; he told me about the space marines on this ship."

"Anything useful?"

Kaida shared her true feelings about the situation, "I don't think what I learned will change anything, we're stuck here with no way of contacting our forces, and I don't think the Marines are just going to let us go."

"Aun'Esa said they can be turned to the greater good," argued the fire warrior. "She would only tell us the truth and would only give us the wisest advice."

"Yes," agreed Kaida with a sigh, "We should wait for something, maybe Aun'Esa will be returned to us."

The fire warrior nodded in agreement, and then asked. "What's your name, pathfinder?"

"Kaida," said the pathfinder.

"I am Turo," said the fire warrior as he sat down on the floor, inviting Kaida to do the same. "Tell me what you know about the marines."

Kaida sat in front of him, careful not to step or sit on the cloak. "They are a chapter called the 'Knights of Ecstasy' and they come from the 'Emperor's Children'."

"I thought they were renegades," wondered Turo aloud, "Why do they say they come from the 'Emperor's Children'?"

"I don't know," said Kaida, agreeing to the confusion, "It's really strange. They don't worship the Emperor at all; they worship a god called Slaanesh."

"I think I've heard of Slaanesh."

"It's a Chaos god."

"No..." said Turo, searching his brain for information, "I remember Slaanesh and Eldar being mentioned in the same sentence. Maybe it's an Eldar god?"

"Does it matter though?" said Kaida, "there are no gods."

"So the ethereals have said," confirmed Turo, "It's good to know something about the enemy though."

The door to the cabin swung open and a body of cloth and blue flesh was tossed in; it landed on the floor in a heap. As soon as Kaida and Turo noticed that it was Aun'Esa, they rushed to help her to her feet.

The deep bellow of Esskrimar was heard coming from outside the door, "You talk too much, tau! I don't want your words in my head anymore."

"If you would only listen, you would be wiser and you would not have a reason to protest," Aun'Esa argued back. Esskrimar was having none of it and simply slammed the door.

"Are you unharmed, my Lady?" asked Turo.

The Ethereal looked to be OK, there was no scarring or bruises like on Turo, even her robes were undamaged. "That brute nearly pulled my arm off." She was shaky in her speech, "apart from that, I'll be OK."

"What did they do with you?" asked Kaida.

"He took me away to watch some human dancing, and then fights between humans, but after I tried to tell him about the greater good he just left me with another marine." She explained, "I kept trying to spread the word, but none of them would listen, they all refused to talk to me. The human slaves found me to be a curiosity and stared at me, but even they did not take heed of my words."

Kaida and Turo were relieved to know that the ethereal was safe and unharmed.

"I am cold," Aun'Esa announced, "pathfinder, give me that cloak."

Kaida gave her the cloak with no hesitation.

"This is a fine piece of clothing, sometimes human craftsmanship is better than I expect," commented the Ethereal while donning the cloak. Kaida never took a lot of notice of its design when she had it on, but it was indeed beautifully made; an elaborate pattern was sown into the exterior fabric with incredible detail. Such a cloak was surely worthy of one such as an ethereal.

"We should sleep," said Aun'Esa, "There is no sense in just waiting and talking. We need our energy and our minds in full working order that we can speak sense to these marines."

Kaida decided that there was something that the ethereal should know as soon as possible, "If I may speak, my lady..."

"Go ahead, pathfinder," said the ethereal as she made herself comfortable on the bed.

"I learned that the Marines worship a god called Slaanesh."

The Ethereal froze immediately and looked directly at Kaida. "Then this is worse than I feared. This ship is a place of Chaos."

"Then what do we do?" asked Turo.

"The Marines do not want to listen to us, but logic is our only weapon in this struggle." Aun'Esa did not convey the same confidence as she did only hours earlier; she was stuttering, and shaking with anxiety. "We must dispel their primitive superstitions." She choked as she spoke, nearly giving way to tears, "that's all they are, just superstitions." She composed herself by rearranging her robes and adjusting the cloak Kaida had given her, "but for now, we must sleep. Our other fire warrior companion will be returned to us in time, I'm sure."

Aun'Esa turned round in the bed and wrapped herself up in the cloak. Kaida and Turo did as they were commanded and lay on the floor, not even thinking of disturbing the resting place of the ethereal.

Kaida turned to Turo and whispered "Did you see that, Aun'Esa is scared. Maybe we'll never get out of this."

"I don't know," said Turo. "Maybe we should just sleep; when the marines come again we need to be fully awake, like she said."

Kaida rolled onto her back, the only comfort left being the cold metal floor against her head. Being one of the Fire Caste, she was used to sleeping in rough conditions and the discomfort was not going to stop her from drifting off, not after a day like this.

Kaida dreamt of a bed. Full of the most attractive naked male tau of all castes that she could imagine. She approached, hoping for intimacy, but she found Aun'Esa in the middle of them all, she had all the men's gazes fixed upon her, as she did nothing but lie in the bed. Aun'Esa opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out but noise, unbearable noise, it was the same cacophony that Kaida remembered from the space marine guns on the battlefield. It filled her head with sound, it was horrible, it was so loud that it forced her to hold her hands up to her head to block out the noise. She looked around and she was the only one that was affected by it, all the other tau watched and listened to Aun'Esa as if they were listening to the most incredible wisdom that ethereals are expected to impart on their subjects.

The hand of a space marine fell onto Kaida's shoulder; she looked up to find Reptile. She held his hand and walked away from the Tau with him, as they walked away the sound faded. When there was no more sound, Reptile dropped to one knee, and Kaida just jumped to wrap her arms around him and embrace him as her saviour from the noise.

The door to the cabin opened and two large figures came in. Kaida sprang up immediately to see what was going on, the other two Tau rose only moments after. Reptile was one of the figures to come in, still in his robes; the other was another marine in full armour except for the helmet. This one had a full head of thick black hair and a strong well chiselled jaw. He spoke bluntly and directly to Turo with a gesture of his hand, "You, come with me," and Turo understood the hand signal and obeyed, he stood up and waited beside the marine.

Reptile offered Kaida his hand, she took it without hesitation and he helped her to her feet. With Kaida standing, he turned to Aun'Esa. "That cloak isn't yours."

The ethereal, who was sitting up with the cloak wrapped around her, took a moment to realise what Reptile was saying to her. "Is it yours?" asked Aun'Esa.

"I gave it to this young lady," said Reptile.

"And she gave it me," said Aun'Esa, "by doing so, she protected me from the cold and provided a small service to the greater good."

Reptile looked down at Kaida, then back at Aun'Esa, "Your robes of office provide more cover for you than all of what either of these two are wearing. Surely it would be of the greater good to let the ones who need it most have the cover, or maybe huddle together so you can all benefit from its warmth." Aun'Esa's face started to tremble. Reptile continued, "But no, you keep it for yourself, not only that, but you don't even let the warriors share the bed, despite it being more than big enough for you. They lay on the cold hard floor, while you lay in comfort."

"I'm sorry," Aun'Esa said in the Tau language to the two members of the Fire Caste, she then continued shakily in Gothic for the space marine. "I'm sorry, I was selfish." She fumbled to remove the cloak from her person; and Reptile took it off her before she could give it to him.

"You don't deserve this," said Reptile as he draped the cloak to over Kaida's shoulders, "I expected much more from you."

Kaida was stunned, she had never seen an Ethereal spoken to like that before, she didn't say anything, she just pulled the cloak around herself and walked with Reptile out the room, leaving Aun'Esa alone.

They were walking behind Turo and the other marine. She took a deep breath and found the courage to ask "Where are we going?"

"One of our Sorcerers wants to see you," he explained, "He believes it was a bad idea to bring you on this ship."