41. Maiden deck
Al-Buk Hussa had been an imagist his whole life. His father had got him his first pict recorder when he was 9, the young Hussa started taking picts of random areas of the hive he lived in in the Nordafrik conclaves. He eventually moved on to taking picts of things that actually mattered and became known around his hive and then Nordafrik and eventually all Terra so when the remembrancer order had been announced by the Emperor himself Hussa was an ideal candidate.
At the age of 32 he travelled to the Imperial palace with the other remembrancer candidates, taking with him the thousands of picts he had taken over his nearly 2 decade long career. It was months of learning about the hierarchy and inner workings of the astartes legions and military while a secret board somewhere looked over his work to see if he would be allowed to document the great crusade. It was months of worry but eventually the remembrancer assignments were posted.
Hussa sprang from his bed on the day and rushed from his quarters without washing or even getting dressed. He rushed down the halls, shoving aside other remembrancers trying to beat him to a cogitator. The common area was a tumultuous sea as everyone tried to push their way to one of the units so they could find out where they were assigned.
"28th expeditionary fleet! Yes!" he saw someone jump above the crowd in joy as they found out their assignment, "I'm going to be able to paint the primarch!"
"90th expeditionary fleet? Who's that?" another walked away from the unit confused and disappointed
"63rd expeditionary fleet! I'll be documenting the Warmaster himself" one remembrancer was met with pats of congratulations at their assignment
Hussa pushed his way to a unit and started putting in his details, silently praying to the Emperor or whatever power controlled the universe for a good assignment. A few seconds was all it took but it felt like an eternity to Hussa, his assignment appeared on the cogitator and he opened his eyes to see it.
1st royal raiding fleet?
As far as Hussa knew the Emperor led the 1st expeditionary fleet but he had never heard of any raiding fleet. Before Hussa could think on it more he was shoved aside and pushed to the back of the crowd, leaving him confused and unsure of where to go.
Hussa made his way to the canteen where many of the remembrancers who had received their assignments had gathered, telling their friends where they would be going and meeting remembrancers with the same assignment.
"Hussa! What assignment did you get?" Kelik Dromon, a friend he had made over the months he had been training, approached, "I was assigned to 915th expedition fleet, that's the fleet led by the Khan"
"I was assigned to the 1st royal raiding fleet"
"What? Are you sure that's what it said, you should have been assigned to an expedition fleet" Kelik looked as confused as Hussa
"It said the 1st royal raiding fleet, I read it at least 3 times"
Kelik scratched his head and the two sat in the confusion until someone approached them, "Did I hear you right, you're assigned to the 1st royal raiding fleet, do you know what that means?"
The remembrancer that had approached them was a short man, no older than Hussa and looked to be from the panpacific area.
"Sorry I have no idea either, I assume you also got the same assignment, I'm Al-Buk Hussa by the way, imagist" Hussa extended his hand
"I'm Tien Batari, documentarian"
"Batari? I think I've seen some of your work" Hussa had heard of the man before, Tien Batari was famous for documenting the protests and eventual riots that took place in Vhnori a couple of years prior
"Yes I do believe I have also seen some of your picts" Tien sighed, "Although that doesn't seem to have been enough to have stopped us from being pawned off to an assignment so unimportant no one has a clue about it"
The two soon found a number of other remembrancers with the same assignment and they all tried to find anything they could on the 1st royal raiding fleet but they all came up with naught.
"Maybe it's code" Kira Jako, a poet, suggested
"Code for what?" Deran Chevile, a painter, was unconvinced, "And why us?"
Hussa looked around at the group, it was pretty small, especially compared to what he had estimated the other fleets were taking on, and all of them seem to be pretty well known and regarded in their fields. Hussa knew there was no chance that all of them were rejected and this was a nice way of letting them down and there was definitely no way that this assignment was unimportant given how famous they all were.
They all sat there trying to figure it out until two people approached them. Two armoured women, one much older and wearing much heavier armour, stood over the group of remembrancers. The older woman was pale and had ice cold blue eyes, her head was shaven except for a tall top knot of silver blonde hair sticking out the top of her head. The younger one had dark skin and golden eyes, she had a full head of black hair that was braided and hung over one shoulder. They both exuded a strange and uncomfortable aura that everyone could feel. They were both obviously sisters of the silent sisterhood.
"Hello" the younger of the two spoke, "This is sister Hela Faust, she will be your escort, I am novice sister Lyria Jelan, her interpreter"
The older woman, Hela, let off a string of quick signs that none of the remembrancers caught but Lyria understood perfectly.
"She says to follow her and not to fall behind"
Hela turned on her heels and marched off as the remembrancers all looked at each other before they decided following the mute sister was their best chance of solving their mystery and they ran after her.
"Come on quickly, sister Hela will leave you all behind" Lyria encouraged them to run after the golden armoured pair
"Are you taking us to our assignment?" Hussa asked the young Lyria
"Sort of, we're taking you to one of the black ships…."
Hussa and his colleges panicked, they had heard horror stories about the black ships, "None of us are psykers! Why are you taking us there?"
Lyria chuckled, "Don't worry no one suspects you of anything, the black ship will just transport you to the next stage of your training"
"Next stage? We've finished training, we're meant to be going to our assignments" Kira questioned the novice sister
"The regular remembrancers yes but you need extra training"
"Why? What is this extra training?" Hussa asked
"No first of all what is the 1st royal raiding fleet?" Tien asked
Sister Hela threw some signs over her shoulder and Lyria suppressed a laugh, "That would not be right sister, they deserve to know"
"Know what?" Hussa was getting tired of being so out of the loop, "What is the 1st royal raiding fleet? Where are we going?"
"The 1st royal raiding fleet is the fleet of the 11th primarch, Ovis Nelson, he has chosen you to act as the remembrancers to his legion" Lyria finally answered their most burning question, "A gesture of good will to the Imperium"
"The primarch himself chose us?" Deran asked, seeming to walk a bit taller hearing that although Hussa would have been lying if he said he didn't straighten out a bit after hearing he had been chosen by one of the Emperor's sons
"Why is he not part of an expedition fleet?" Kira asked
"He is not truly subject to Imperial authority like his brothers, its politics and I don't really understand it" Lyria brushed the question off
"So are we going to join the primarch now?" Tien asked
"No right now you will be heading to the pirate empire of Krake for your extra training"
"And why are we being escorted by the sisters of silence?"
"To help you with your training"
There were a few more questions asked and answered before the group were shown to a shuttle bay where the sisters would be waiting and were given 2 hours to gather their belonging, everyone rushed back to their quarters and threw everything they owned in to a bag. They were shuttled to a black ship that was away almost as soon as they docked with it, they were shown to quarters and left to get comfortable.
It was hard to get comfortable on one of the black ships, it wasn't just the ominous reputation the ships had but also the oppressive aura given off by the dozen or so sisters that were on board with them. The remembrancers spent most of their time talking to each other and playing games to pass the months it would take them to reach Krake.
"What do you know about the 11th primarch?" Hussa asked as he played a card game with his colleagues
"I looked him and his legion up on the ships databanks, they have an impressive list of victories and compliances" Tien answered
"Do you know why he isn't subject to Imperial authority like his brothers?" Kira asked Tien
"An agreement he made with the Emperor, he fights in the great crusade and all the worlds he conquered before being discovered will forever remain independent"
"And this empire of his?"
"An empire ruled over by the soulless that sustains itself by raiding its neighbours, its called the pirate empire for a reason"
"An empire ruled by blanks" Deran shivered, "Sounds creepy couldn't imagine being in a city of them much less an entire empire"
"You should watch what you say" Hussa warned the painter, nodding to a silent sister standing on the other side of the room behind Deran, staring directly at him
"Sorry" he raised a hand in apology but the sister simply marched off without a word, "I might request passage back to Terra if all blanks are that creepy"
"Don't say that, we were hand picked by the primarch and besides they aren't all bad novice Lyria is quite helpful"
Deran let out a whistle, "So that's what you're in to, I'm not judging but Kira might be a bit offended" the woman in question rolled her eyes but remained silent
"Shut up, she's just been telling me about the sisterhood and lets me sit in on their training"
"Have any picts?" Daren asked
"Seriously? That's quite the 180" Kira commented
"Hey I can dislike their attitude but you can't deny how good they look"
"Well lets forget about that, does anyone know which planet we're actually going to?" Kira asked
"I hope it's Krake itself, I read it's quite beautiful despite the people" Tien seemed quite excited for the assignment
"I heard we're going to a planet called Lod" Hussa answered Kira's question
"Doesn't sound very impressive"
The journey was uneventful and after a few months in the warp the black ship exited in a system that was devoid of many worlds, it only contained 4 and only one wasn't at the edge of the system, that was Lod.
Lod was an unimpressive brown ball with a single small ocean in its southern hemisphere, the planet looked deserted in fact it looked like it had been subject to exterminatus, there were no signs of even a small city or any other life.
"What are we going to learn on this dust ball" Deran looked at the approaching planet unimpressed, "Is there even anyone on this planet?"
"Lod is used by the Kraken army for training" Lyria approached the remembrancers, "They test weapons and vehicles here as well as run drills and exercises"
"From the records while their navy is stellar their ground forces aren't anything to write home about" Tien imparted a bit of the knowledge he had gained
"True but don't say that to them, now get ready we'll be falling in to orbit soon" Lyria left the remembrancers
They all packed their belongings and made their way to the hanger where Hela and Lyria were waiting with a shuttle. They were taken to the planet's surface and found it was as boring and desolate as it seemed from space, a near infinite expanse of hard sun bake clay that was only broken by the small military camp that had been set up in the middle of the flat plain.
As soon as the shuttle landed and the remembrancers disembarked they were approached. The one who came to greet them was an older man, probably in his late 40s or 50s, he had dark skin and golden eyes with a bushy greying moustache on his top lip and he exuded the cold aura of a blank.
"I am Lieutenant General Kers Walson, I'm in charge of Lod testing grounds" he greeted them all, "Follow me to your quarters"
The remembrancers said farewell to their silent guide and followed him, they were taken to one of the barrack buildings, no different from barracks used by the soldiers on the base.
"Get comfortable and if you get hungry then you can go to the officers mess and try to keep out of the soldiers' way" the Lieutenant General was about to leave but Tien spoke up
"What are we supposed to be doing here exactly?"
"They didn't tell you?"
"They just said it was extra training, training for what?"
"You're here to get use to blanks, I hear people like you don't have a good reaction when exposed to a large group of us"
"So we just have to stay here?"
"Yes and try not to lose your minds" the old man let out a chuckle before leaving
The months they spent on Lod were boring but that ended up being a good sign, the uncomfortable and oppressive aura that had been assaulting the remembrancers since they boarded the black ship was barely being registered by the end. Over the course of their stay on Lod they were taught to read and write in Kraken, Gothic and Kraken were clearly related languages but they were quite distinct from each other. They also busied themselves by throwing themselves in to their works; Hussa took picts of the military exercises constantly taking place in the wastes, Tien went about learning and documenting whatever he could about the units present on the planet, Deran didn't have much to paint but he always found a subject and Kira spent her time penning rude lyrics with some of the soldiers.
Eventually the time came and a ship arrived to ferry them to their real assignment, they were taken aboard a Kraken ship and were off in to the warp once again. It was more months of them having little to do but play games and practise their crafts but it was much better than the other months of wating as at the end of it they would finally be able to begin documenting the great crusade.
The remembrancers stood on the ships observation deck as they exited the warp and the shields were lifted from the observation windows. The ship had dropped out of the warp in the middle of the void and a few thousand miles away a fleet was waiting for it. The fleet was comprised of ships of varying sizes and of similar designs but at the centre of it all was a truly massive ship.
It was clearly the flagship of the primarch, the kilometres long monster was modelled after a beast of the deep and clearly had enough firepower to take on a fleet by itself. Their ship pulled up along side it and a shuttle took them between the two.
The remembrancers left the shuttle in to a busy hanger, it was massive and filled with a small army of men moving ammunition and spacecraft around. A towering man greeted them as they came down the boarding ramp, he was easily twice the height of any of the remembrancers and wore power armour with the 11th legions colours, despite being a literal giant he was quite handsome with dark skin and polished silver eyes.
"It's the primarch!" Tien looked up at him with awe
They had all seen paintings of the primarch during their time on Lod and the man standing before them looked exactly like him.
"I am Atris, 1st son of Ovis and 1st captain of the World beasts legion, welcome to the Krake"
"You're not the primarch?" Tien looked disappointed
Atris chuckled slightly, "Unfortunately no but I suspect that reaction is the reason he asked me to greet you"
Atris turned on his heels and walked off leaving the remembrancers to chase after him, his stride being at least twice theirs. They walked through the hanger with all the human crew taking great effort to avoid Atris and get anything out of his path.
"I'm sorry if I offended you, you look exactly like the primarch but it is a great honour to meet you, I've read your record and it is very impressive" Tien took even greater effort to keep up with the giant
Atris barely acknowledged him, Hussa moved forward, "Will we get to see the primarch?"
"If he calls for you then you will, you have free reign of the ship except for a few decks"
Atris took them to their quarters, they were much better than the quarters they had been given on the black ship or the last ship they had been on. They were much more spacious and had actual beds instead of cots as well as their own washrooms.
Hussa and the remembrancers had been on the Krake for months and none of them had even seen the primarch or exchanged so much as 2 words with any of the astartes, they had mostly been put to work for the human senior officers on the ship with Hussa being lucky enough to take picts from the front lines, he even managed to see the primarch's silhouette through a smoke-filled battle once, or at least he thought it was the primarch.
"It would have been better if we were rejected as remembrancers" Hussa complained as he and Tien walked through the ship, heading to the officer's mess
"It's not all bad, I am getting a lot of good material, I'm actually writing a paper on Kraken culture"
"Well good for you, I've only got to take picts of regular human soldiers, no one wants to see that, they want to see astartes in their power armour"
"That is quite insulting, those brave men are sacrificing their lives for our entire species"
"That's not what I meant, I just want to take an iconic pict, something that will be inspiring 10 thousand years from now"
"10 thousand years" Tien whistled, "You're going to need to take a really good pict"
"I was being hyperbolic but I…" Hussa was cut off when they rounded a corner and one of the crew ran right in to him, throwing the remembrancer to the ground
The sailor bent down and offered a hand, saying something in Kraken that Hussa did not catch. He was wearing his uniform although he had unbuttoned his shirt, making it clear he probably wasn't on duty right now
"What?" Hussa took the hand and pulled himself to his feet
"I said sorry" he spoke gothic with a thick accent that made him only just understandable, "You're one of those remembrancers"
"I am, Al-Buk Hussa, imagist. We do understand Kraken"
"Leading rate Arist Harin" Arist kept with gothic, he had the typical dark skin and gold eyes of all the Krakens that crewed the ship, he looked like he was at least a decade younger than Hussa and seemed to have a permanent mischievous grin on his face
"Well we were just on our way to the officer's mess, so…"
"Oh you don't want to hang out with those boring old men, come with me to the rating's mess"
Arist didn't wait for the two to answer and just pushed them along, in the exact opposite direction they were originally going. The officer's mess was like a social club, it was quiet and the food and amasec was obviously expensive and well prepared. The rating's mess on the other hand was like any common bar, it was loud and filled with men drinking, smoking and gambling.
"Arist!" a table of men playing cards got his attention, "Who're your friends?"
The three walked over to the table and grabbed chairs, one of the men dealing them in, "They're remembrancers" Arist said as he looked at his cards
"Whoa you got some fancy company" the dealer started speaking Gothic, he sounded sarcastic but Hussa couldn't tell through his thick accent, "I'm Erst, those two are Yaris and Orst"
The two other men at the table nodded at the remembrancers, "So you're those remembrancers I've been hearing about"
"Yes, I'm Al-Buk Hussa, an imagist and this is Tien Batari a documentarian"
Erst chuckled, "Well if you two want good stories we have a few for you"
"Well unless you can perfectly recreate them here your stories aren't much use to me" Hussa commented, earning a laugh from the table
"I have a story that will be of use to you" the voice came from behind Hussa and he could see all the men rolling their eyes
Hussa looked behind him and a man approached the table, he looked like any of the thousand young men that crewed the ship except for the fact he walked with an obvious limp.
"We don't want to hear your fantasies Irist" Erst jeered as Irist took a seat at the table
"It's not a fantasy, its real I tell you"
"What's real?" Tien leaned forward, obviously interested
"The maiden deck" Irist said and the other men instantly groaned
"Next thing you're gonna tell us you rode a void leviathan" Arist and the other men were being very dismissive of Irist
"No but I have been to the maiden deck, how do you think I got my limp"
"You were thrown over a railing during a battle"
"I fell over that railing because my legs were weak from visiting the maiden deck"
"What's the maiden deck?" Hussa interrupted the two, now interested
Irist leaned close to the remembrancers, "You know our Kraken emperor has sons right?"
"Yes"
"Well he also has daughters, you might have seen some of them"
Hussa had seen some of them walking about the ship, giant women the size of astartes but they were much better looking.
Irist continued, "The maiden deck is a deck that only they and their handmaids have access to, the silent sisters stationed on the ship are also quartered there, imagine it an entire deck of beautiful women wearing barely anything" the sailor had a starry look in his eyes
"It's a myth!" Erst broke Irist out of his daydream
"It's not, one of the emperor's daughters took a liking to me and brought me there"
"Impossible" Erst scoffed, "We haven't even taken a liking to you"
"How did you get a limp by going to the maiden deck?" Tien asked
"Those women average 7 and half foot, how do you think I got the limp"
"If you're done with your tall tale, do you want to be dealt in?" Erst held up the deck he was holding
"Fine but I'm telling you the maiden deck is real"
Hussa spent hours playing cards and drinking with the men, he didn't know what game they were playing and barely understood the rules but he did know that when he finally left the game he had lost a lot of money. He eventually retired to his quarters but he couldn't get that story Irist had told out of his head, he even had a dream about visiting the maiden deck that night.
Hussa woke up with a splitting headache the next day, stumbling out of his quarters and in to the common area the remembrancers shared, throwing himself down on one of the couches.
"Busy night" Deran held out a cup of recaf that Hussa took gratefully
"Me and Tien were up all night gambling with the ratings" Hussa looked around the common area, he could see some remembrancers starting their day but Tien was nowhere to be seen, "Have you seen him, I'm afraid the amount he drank killed the little guy"
"He's probably sleeping it off, best to leave him"
"He has the right idea" Hussa downed the recaf and stood to go back to bed
"I'm guessing I won't be seeing you until dinner"
"That seems a bit to early maybe breakfast" Deran chuckled as Hussa started walking back to his quarters
"I found it!" Tien came running in, much more presentable with the alcohol seemingly not affecting him
"What?" Hussa held his head at the sudden loud sound
Tien grabbed Hussa and pulled him back to the couch, sitting in front of Deran and unrolling a map of the entire ship. The map was thoroughly annotated and several decks were highlighted.
"I found it, the maiden deck" Tien announced
"The maiden deck?" Deran asked
"It's where the daughters of the primarch are quartered"
Deran leaned in, obviously interested now, "So where is this deck?"
"I gathered all the publicly available information on this ship that I could and I believe it is this deck directly beneath the primarch's own personal quarters, it's listed as storage but no supplies are ever stored there and none are taken out either, it also seems to only be accessible by going through the primarch's quarters"
Hussa gave Tien a sideways look, "Why go through all this trouble"
"Well you said you wanted to take an iconic pict, what could be more iconic than the daughters of a primarch"
"You're not suggesting we try to sneak in" Hussa now looked at Tien like he was crazy, "If we're caught the primarch will twist our heads off"
"And if we succeed we'll be as close to heaven as you can get while alive" Deran countered
"Tien is half the size of a regular person those women will crush him like a bug"
"I'm willing to take that risk"
Hussa looked at his colleagues like they were insane but they were clearly not going to be dissuaded by the threat of death and Hussa would be lying if he said he didn't want to see the maiden deck. The imagist sighed and relented, he wasn't going to convince them it was a bad idea and he wasn't going to be left out of such a mission either.
"Fine, what do we do first?"
Tien and Deran cracked a smile, "Well it might seem like the only entrance is through the Primarch's quarters but there is a maintenance hatch" Tien explained the plan he had put together, open a maintenance hatch in the main part of the ship and travel to the one in the maiden deck
"Seems too easy" Deran commented
"You're right, to get to the hatch we'll need to travel between the inner and outer hulls"
"How far do we have to go to get to the hatch?" Deran asked
"Does it matter? We'll suffocate well before we freeze outside the inner hull" Hussa knew that the space between a ships inner and outer hull wasn't properly pressurised or heated and was little better than being exposed to the vacuum of space
"Don't worry about that I know some people in maintenance, I can borrow some of the breathing masks they use, the real challenge will be that we won't be able to wear pressure suits" Tien seemed to have thought of everything
"What will we be wearing?" Deran asked
"This is the real difficult part, we need to get our hands on the robes the handmaids wear, that'll be our disguise"
Deran smirked, "I've gotten to know some of the handmaids, I could convince some of them to leave their robes in my room
"Are we really doing this?" Hussa asked
The three looked at each other, none said anything but an understanding passed between them, they would risk their lives for this mission. They soon parted and got to work preparing. Tien talked to his contact in ship maintenance, Deran went to chat up any handmaid he found around the ship and Hussa got to work modifying his pict recorder so it could be hidden under his clothes.
A week after they had learned of the maiden deck the three were about to embark on a dangerous quest to reach the mythical place. They gathered around an out of the way maintenance hatch, picking one with basically no foot traffic, Deran produced the handmaid robes and the three quickly got dressed before Tien took out three sets of breathing masks.
The breathing masks used by the maintenance crew weren't like the helmets on environment suits, they covered the eyes, nose and mouth and helped the body maintain internal pressure as well as deliver oxygen. The three put the masks on and Hussa broke the seal on the hatch, opening it.
The group climbed out of the inner hull, grabbing on to a handle next to the hatch as they felt their bodies become weightless, Deran was the last through and closed the hatch behind him. Tien led the way, the lack of gravity outside the inner hull making travel much easier, throwing themselves from one grip to another.
It was freezing but that was slightly mitigated by their bodies expanding, thanks to the lack of atmosphere, but their skin contained everything and they retained good enough use of their limbs. They were outside the hull for 2 minutes maximum but Hussa knew that any longer and they would start running in to problems.
Tien confirmed that they were at the right hatch before opening it and the three scrambled inside, slamming the hatch behind them. They took off the breathing masks and stashed them in the robes as they looked around, they were surrounded by crates. They were in a storage area.
"I knew this was a dumb idea, it is just storage" Hussa complained while Deran looked disheartened
"Wait, listen" Tien strained his ear
"What?" Hussa could hear something as well
They could hear the sound of someone shouting orders while more people ran about and did various, very loud, jobs.
"I think we're in a food store" Deran pointed out as he inspected some of the crates, all of them contained ingredients
Hussa moved between the crates and found a door, he cracked it open and saw at least 2 dozen handmaids running around a kitchen, preparing food, he noticed one making her way to the store and quickly ducked behind a crate. The three discussed it and concluded they were either in the primarch's or his daughters' private kitchen, they hid in the store for hours until they heard the noise die down and they found it was safe for them to leave.
The robes worn by the handmaids were a long black dress like things with hems done in gold, they also had a hood which allowed the three to hide their faces. After leaving the kitchen the corridor they found themselves in was much different to the others on the ship, these ones were made for comfort instead of utility, they were wide and well decorated. Handmaids moved up and down them in groups, some doing chores and others just chatting with their friends, the three men tried to act as if they were talking to each other to try and blend in.
The entire area of the ship was the same as the corridor, every room they found being clearly built for comfort over utility or saving space as was normal. They only saw handmaids and the men were starting to believe they hadn't found the maiden deck until they stumbled on to the central axis of the deck.
There were legends from the region of Hellas on Terra, for as long as records have been kept stories from that region spoke of an island or region populated exclusively by women, the stories always spoke of a brave man overcoming many challenges in order to make it to the island, sometimes they were rewarded by the women and other times they were killed by the women. That was the situation the three were in.
The daughters of the primarch could be described as beautiful and terrifying in equal measure, they were 8 foot tall and could easily crush a man with their bare hands but they also all maintained a youthful appearance and fit figure but they were always in their armour in public so that wasn't always obvious. When Hussa and his comrades found them they were out of their armour, some wore loose robes that they let hang open while others wore only a loincloth and maybe they had their chest wrapped.
The women sat around listening to one of them playing some kind of string instrument and singing, her voice like a siren luring them in, they stood their frozen in awe as they watched them lounge around, unsure of what to do now that they had reached their goal.
Hussa's finger moved on its own and he pressed the discreet trigger to his pict recorder, silently capturing a pict of the scene before him but that seemed to instantly break the scene. Several of the women noticed them awkwardly standing and staring.
"Well well, what do we have here" one of them approached the frozen Hussa and pulled down his hood, "Most men don't make it this far, quite impressive"
The woman was at least 2 feet taller than Hussa, she wore only a loincloth and Hussa could see her every curve and her defined muscles but his eyes were drawn to her eyes and her two mirror like silver irises.
"So how did you three manage to get yourselves so lost? You even accidently got yourselves tangled up in those robes" her tone sarcastic and mocking, "It's rude not to answer when asked a question"
Hussa found his voice caught in his throat as he tried to think of what to say next but he found all his thoughts fell out of his head.
"You're being unfair Iria, clearly no blood is getting to his head" the women all laughed
"True but what should we do with them, father won't like that they snuck in here" Iria turned to her sisters
Hussa started to feel his faculties come back to him as he could think about something other than the woman in front of him and his brain came to the conclusion that this legend was moving towards the getting killed ending instead of the other one. He turned to Deran and Tien, hoping they would be able to do something but both were as frozen in awe as he was, he tried to think of a way to justify them being there.
"And this one has a pict recorder" Iria snapped around and pointed an accusing finger at Hussa, "Thought you were being sneaky but we can all hear the mechanism"
Hussa had spent days modifying his pict recorder, hiding all the mechanisms and silencing anything that made the slightest noise, he thought he did a perfect job but apparently their hearing was more sensitive than the instruments he had used to test his modifications.
"Well father definitely won't like that, taking picts of us in such exposed states" another one of the sisters approached the trio, stopping in front of Tien, the short man easily being dwarfed by the giant woman, "Since they rudely interrupted our relaxation time they should help us relax, it's quite stressful having people invade your personal space"
"Y-y-you want us t-to sing…o-or dance?" Hussa found himself able to barely stumble out words
Iria smirked, "No"
Kira walked in to the common area shared by the remembrancers, walking to some of the couches, she reached them and found three of her colleagues slumped in them completely exhausted.
"Hussa, Tien, Deran, where the hell have you been?" the three had been missing for days, Kira had noticed and reported it but no one ever followed up
Deran spoke in a small and exhausted voice, "Did you know heaven and hell exist in the same place"
"What?"
"Nevermind" Hussa managed to push himself off the couch only to fall on to the floor, "But do you know where I can get a new pict recorder, I seem to have broken mine, fortunately I backup everything"
Hussa held up a memory chip in his shaking hands as he and his two accomplices let out strained laughs.
Next time: Angels calling