{oOo}
Nefer stood, shaky and pale, before Lord Corax, and mentally cursed all redheads, all primarchs and all maniacs in robes.
The Raven Guard's primarch was gigantic, and the stark, unrelieved terror Nefer was feeling turned his bowels to water. And yet the smaller, golden-haired male managed to say, "I'm the Apothecary sent here, to look after your legion, my lord."
The tall Primarch gave him a curious look, then a more measuring one. "I am glad you have come." He said finally. Then he showed the strange, timid Apothecary to his laboratory and the geneseed samples.
The corrupted geneseed samples.
Nefer swallowed hard, and bent his head down in a gesture of respect, and tried to keep his knees from shaking.
Once the Raven Guard leader had left him there, alone, in the labratory, Nefer slumped into his chair, shaking in suppressed terror... and then he took up his tools and went to work.
It was a good thing that there had been a cure for the Raven Guard's problems in their geneseed, back in his own dimension. He remembered it very well, and bent his back to the work dilligently, as quickly as he could, without sacrificing efficiency or quality to speed.
He had to finish as early as possible, before the Ruinous Powers' emissary could make his way here, to fuck up the genepool further.
The geneseed the strange, timid new Apothecary worked with turned out to be exceptional. Corax raised his head from the reports, after having examined the new Astartes themselves and allowed his lips to curve up in a smile.
"Your work is exemplary, Apothecary." He told the timid young man. "I shall have to thank my brother, Fulgrim, for lending you to me."
"Ah, that won't be necessary, sir." Nefer said, wide eyed, almost as a squeak.
Corax wondered why his new Apothecary was so timid... but then, the boy was a genius, for his age. He would keep him. "Relax." he said, as kindly as he could. "No one is going to hurt you."
Nefer swallowed hard, thought over his next words and mentally prayed to the Omnissiah, the Emperor and the Ancient gods of his people from before the Imperium assimilated his planet, before he spoke. "There.." he swallowed hard. "There is a cultist saboteur being sent here by an enemy, to ruin your geneseed. I was sent here to tend to the problem before they c-can ruin your legion beyond repair, but I'm not combat t-trained, and they could likely have me killed."
He swallowed hard again. "I would p-prefer not to be noticed at all, honestly, because it will ensure they don't go after me." His voice was small, and frightened. It matched his eyes, wide and terrified, and the way his hands wrung his apothecary robes.
Corax frowned at his words. "... No harm will come to you, I swear it."
On the day the Ruinous Power's emissary arrived, with a similar excuse to the one that Nefer had used, the creature was immediately sent packing by an angry Primarch's fist and shiny, sharp Chainsword.
Enraged, the being revealed itself to be a strange crow-like being... and was mobbed to death by angry Astartes while their new apothecary cowered under his desk.
{oOo}