{oOo}
Uther spat in Teleute's face when she tried to say goodbye.
The reactions of the others had varied widely. Umi had hugged her and then tried to start a fight. That had been reassuringly normal. If the legends surrounding Angron had grown over time, at least they had never claimed that he was petty. The Primarch that Horus had slain held no grudge.
Dorias had hidden from her. Prima had not. Miriam had been shy (as always) but when Teleute checked her pockets on leaving the other girl's room she had found two slim books tucked inside them - one written about Horus during the Great Crusade and a second about the battle in which he had died, penitent to the end.
Uther's reaction was by far the most adversarial. His faith in the God Emperor was deep and his tolerance for a rebel, even reincarnated, was all but non-existent.
"Understand this," he hissed. "I am reborn of a loyal Primarch and you are a traitor. Do us all a favour and die alongside the other scum of the Black Legion."
Teleute wiped his spittle from her cheek. "Two days ago it hadn't even occurred to me that any of us might be traitors," she pointed out. "How do you know that you aren't one."
He glared at her. "My faith in the God-Emperor is absolute."
"The Primarch called you 'Herald' didn't he?"
Uther nodded. "The herald of Serenity's return."
She shrugged. "Before they found their Primarch, one Legion bore the name 'Imperial Heralds'."
"...which Legion," he asked, reluctantly, even his disgust yielding to the driving curiosity about which Primarch's soul was also his own."
Teleute turned away. "The Seventeenth," she told him and closed the door before he recalled which Legion bore that number.
Behind her, while Uther screamed denial - that she was lying, that he hated her - of the implication that he was father to the Word Bearers, Teleute wondered uneasily how she had known that tidbit of history.
{oOo}
AN: And here is another piece in the 'Heresy & Rebirth' universe.