Marius Vairosean had expected a triumph upon his return to the Pride of the Emperor. He had, after all, subdued a planet with no Astarte casualties. Slodi was his victory, even as it was Dasara's doom. True, the world was minor, but no casualties against fierce resistance was a success hard to believe, the result of truly incredible preparatory work.

Marius Vairosean had expected a triumph upon his return to the Pride of the Emperor. But Emperor, he hadn't expected such a triumph!

He was standing now at the head of a detachment of Sergeants, parading through the Triumphal Way. There was a celebratory mood Vairosean had never seen before Laeran, but which had since become infectious after every major victory. Yet the celebrations were even more extreme than before, perhaps seeming like an attempt to distract.

The Third Company strode through the Triumphal Way, their march echoing off the vast hallway, guards and statues flanking their path. There were more skulls than during his last visit, Vairosean noted; perhaps Eidolon had participated in another campaign, or perhaps some Captain was imitating the Lord Commander. Neither scenario much excited Vairosean, but Fulgrim had, however, given his assent to the skulls, and it was not Vairosean's place to question his Primarch, ever.

The procession approached the Phoenix Gate, and Vairosean saw Lord Commander Eidolon standing at the entrance, proud and almost paternal. Next to him, and dwarfing the Lord Commander in every way possible, stood the Primarch himself. Fulgrim was in full military gear, and the expression on his face was similar to Eidolon's, but genuine.

"I congratulate you, Brother-Captain Vairosean," he said with a smile. "That was… exquisite."

"It was my duty," Vairosean answered. "My redemption. It had to be as perfect as possible." It did, and it was.

"And the greatness of this campaign was undeniable." Fulgrim raised his head to take in the full parade. "I congratulate you, Marius Vairosean, Third Captain of the Third Legion. The victory feast will be in a quarter of a cycle."

It was the conclusion; loud music played a triumphal coda, and Vairosean wondered at when the last campaign without had been. He remembered that Verona had led one, for which he had been promoted to Lord Commander within a month; but the war for Analasse had been thirty-two years ago. Yes, he remembered it well, along with Fulgrim's pride. Perhaps Verona's execution had simply been a product of Fulgrim's great expectations.

Vairosean dearly hoped he wouldn't share the same fate.

As the Third Captain departed towards his rooms, he felt a tug at his left arm. Turning around, he noted Solomon Demeter, unhelmeted and grinning with true joy. "Great to see you back, in this sort of victory," the Second Captain said.

"It took a lot of preparation," Vairosean noted. "And really, it wasn't-"

"The last time this happened was before Verona's promotion to Lord Commander, thirty-two years ago. It was amazing."

"Thank you. But Dasara - "

"Who cares?"

Vairosean exhaled, feeling a bit of choler. "Dasara was a Captain. Our brother. Neither of us liked him, but it is a horrid evil to enjoy his death."

Demeter solemnly nodded, exhibiting clear remorse that made Vairosean feel he'd spoken too harshly. "You're right; I apologize. The Twenty-Fifth…."

"The Twenty-Fifth suffered horrid losses, and in all honesty their absence disappoints me. They did not deserve a triumph, perhaps, but their contribution was vital."

"You could have won alone."

"Not without deaths."

Demeter nodded. "But in any case, you did win, without deaths, and I can't bring myself to regret a campaign that did that. And - and we need you here." Vairosean tilted his head in inquiry, and Demeter eagerly continued. "The Legion's decay - that which Fulgrim had braked - is accelerating again. Kaesoron massacred surrendering civilians. Abranxe killed one of his Sergeants for entertainment. Ruen took prisoners in the campaign on the research station, and is currently torturing them."

"I find that hard to believe. And Fulgrim - "

"Fulgrim is devoted to the god, the one called Slaanesh. He no longer acts to stop any of that - well, he censured Abranxe, but mildly. He directly supported Kaesoron's act. Does Fulgrim even follow the Emperor anymore, Vairosean?"

It was a heretical question, an unimaginable possibility; but if all that Demeter said was true (and the Second Captain blatantly believed it), the impossible became possible rather quickly.

"I will not react with anger," Vairosean nevertheless said, "but I am still loyal to our Primarch. I will consider your words, Solomon Demeter, but I will not heed them. Probably. Farewell."

"Farewell," Demeter replied, still warmly, and they parted.

Vairosean walked to his chambers, trying to suppress his doubt. It was not his place to question Fulgrim; and Demeter could have been misled. The fact of command, the ideal of honor, demanded that Vairosean not even entertain the possibility Fulgrim was a traitor; but to have heard the worst rumors from the fleet, confirmed just like that….

Fulgrim was supposed to be returning the Legion to order. What had happened? It was all so sudden….

Vairosean shook his head. A triumph had happened, one even greater than Vairosean had expected. It was utterly ungrateful to doubt the Legion now, of all times.

Mentally exhausted from the suppression, the Third Captain entered his room and gazed at his collection. He set Tawanaer's fifth installment in the Cycle of Music to play softly as he concentrated on a simulation of the Slodi campaign, from Dasara's point of view. Unsurprisingly, it was about as difficult as his half. As he sent Loisekuas to link up with Dasara's forces, he winced at how badly the cogitator was mismanaging the operation. Perhaps he was, indeed, too humble; Dasara's failure had come against strong resistance, and it hadn't been that much worse than Vairosean had predicted.

Still, even doing the simulation for the first time, Vairosean managed to limit losses to thirty deaths and survive personally. That was a significant improvement on Dasara's results, despite not devoting his full attention to the campaign; and the Twenty-Fifth Captain had achieved that rank for a reason. Vairosean still did not know what engagement, precisely, had killed Dasara; it was beside the point anyways. The better question was what had led to the deterioration of his strategic ability.

After checking the time (three hours remained until the feast), Vairosean searched for Dasara's previous campaign on his cogitator. The ship's common net recorded that it had been a month prior, and the largest change since then was a modification to Dasara's brain done by Lord Commander Fabius.

That was not a good sign. Besides, even those who had accepted non-mental modifications had become more chaotic - Solomon Demeter was a good sign (though, of course, Demeter had always been chaotic). Perhaps Lord Commander Fabius' modifications were at the root of the changes?

And the changes in the Legion had started after Laeran, at that, simultaneously with Bile's modifications. The only question was: had the sinister alterations touched Fulgrim? Had this injury to the Legion's ability, the Legion's perfection, touched the Primarch?

Well, Fulgrim had been noted to be spending all his time with Lord Commander Fabius….

Gears clicked within Vairosean's mind. That explained everything - Kaesoron's mercilessness, Ruen's cruelty, Dasara's foolishness. It was hurting the Emperor's Crusade, too. There was no way this traced itself to the Emperor. Vairosean would have shot the surrendering men if that was the honor system of the Imperium now; but blatant failure was not acceptable in any system.

Of course, there were still questions. It was still not clear how the Warp entity, Slaanesh, fit into this - perhaps it was one of Fabius' accomplices? And just how disloyal were Fabius and Fulgrim?

No. All of this was just theory. Fabius and Fulgrim were not disloyal. Turning his cogitator to stasis, he cleaned his armor at a slightly accelerated pace and was in the Triple Fall slightly earlier than his graph had called for. He waited for Isitan Loisekuas there, and then headed to the Heliopolis, walking the Triumphal Way for the second time in a cycle, though this time without ceremony.

They arrived at the Phoenix Gate together. Two of the Guard blocked the way.

"Captain Marius Vairosean."

"Lieutenant Isitan Loisekuas."

"This one is not a member of the Brotherhood," one of the Phoenix Guard said.

"He is my guest," Vairosean said. He had specifically cleared this with the Primarch before the triumph, getting the right to have Loisekuas visit.

"Very well," the other Guard replied. Vairosean wondered if Fabius' implants, if they were indeed the malice's cause, were within the Phoenix Guard too. It seemed likely, given their closeness to the Primarch.

The Captain did his best to clear such thoughts from his mind as he entered the Heliopolis. Loisekuas hurried off to find his seat, whereas Vairosean descended to his own, near the amphitheater's center. Demeter sat next to him, silent for now, awaiting the Primarch. The amphitheater began to fill up with the Captains and other senior staff of the Legion. Lord Commander Fabius was among the last to arrive, with only an exhausted Saul Tarvitz following him. Vairosean looked at the Tenth Captain in question.

"Debating Lucius is tiring," Tarvitz responded.

Fulgrim appeared, as always, precisely on schedule. His light skin glittered in the piercing illumination, and his expression radiated confidence and contentment, as well as the devotion to further perfection. He lowered himself into his throne and cast an overall gaze on the Heliopolis. He picked out, and Vairosean copied, the disgraced Abranxe, his proud blood-brother Heliton, Lucius' replacement Jaenispius, the ever-vain Eidolon, the contemplative Vespasian, Tarvitz, Kaesoron, Demeter, and others; the Brotherhood of the Phoenix had been gathered.

"We gather here today," Fulgrim pronounced, his voice as a thunderclap, "to remember the victories past. Let us remember, then, the truly wondrous achievement of Marius Vairosean! Marius, I take it your victory will be sufficient for you to accept Lord Commander Fabius' enhancements?"

"Ah, yes," Vairosean said when it became clear Fulgrim was awaiting a response. "I will schedule a time, my lord."

"Marvelous," Fulgrim said. "Let us remember that Marius Vairosean of the Third Legion's Third Company conquered the planet Slodi without a single one of his Astartes falling. Let us remember that, despite this, the conquest was far from perfect."

"Captain Dasara of the 25th," Fulgrim continued in magnificent fashion, "fell in battle after his forces were torn apart. He was my son, and I mourned him; yet his own tactics brought on his failure. But in a sense, those tactics were closer to perfection than Vairosean's. For perfection is not simply the geometric ideal of winning a war most efficiently, is it? It is, too, the living, beating ideal of joy. It is improvisation in the midst of fierce battle. It is the tactics of Solomon Demeter that must pave our way forwards. Excessive preparation is similar to breaking through a wall it would be much easier, and more elegant, to walk around. It is the antithesis of perfection."

Vairosean tried to calm his choler, but the Phoenician wasn't finished. "Many among this Legion worship the deity Slaanesh. I endorse this faith; but we must remember we are soldiers, and holy to us is war, not peace. We must make our temple on the battlefield. We must not kill our brothers, their pain a sacrifice; we must use as a sacrifice the pain of our enemies. We must not take joy in decay shipside, but in madness planetside. Worship the Dark Prince in war, and perfection will come."

Slaanesh.

"I understand," Vairosean said coolly and severely. "Permission to leave for contemplation?"

"Marius, your victory was amazing for what it was. Yet you have greater things ahead of you. Yes, you may leave; but remember I am in no way taking away your triumph."

So that Fabius can still call me on my promise and corrupt me.

Without a further word, Marius Vairosean stormed off.

He considered the events, once outside, in light of the conspiracy theory. Perhaps it was false; perhaps Fulgrim's conversion had been a political decision, and the Legion's failure a natural process. But even in that case…

"Does Fulgrim even follow the Emperor anymore?" Demeter had asked.

And the Captain knew that, whether the Phoenician was aware of it or not, his Primarch was a traitor to the Imperium, sowing chaos and failure.

And Marius Vairosean accepted that he would turn away from the Legion to face the Emperor.