Chapter 5–Breaking in
The initiates were corralled back into the central chamber of the cathedral of Khaine, where a great transformation had occurred. The statues were the same, still looming down upon the initiates, exarchs, and autarchs with the reminder that someone was always better than you, but the floor was nigh-unrecognizable. Pits had opened up along the floor, climbing walls had been erected, wires hung from the ceiling, the great tree-like red pillars which supported the structure but had always been unnoticeable next to the statues sprouting large thorns.
A Dire Avenger Exarch, bearing a ceremonial sword and pistol, addressed the initiates in a ringing voice. "Since the fall, it has been the tradition of the warrior shrines to put the youngest among them to train beside the strongest among them, and force them to learn or die. However, after a thousand years of training casualties due to inexperienced and unfit initiates being forced to perform the training regimen of an aspect warrior, the great Asurmen decided that basic physical training was required to be completed before an initiate could enter the shrines. As the best, most numerous and most well-rounded of the aspect warriors, that honour was given to the Dire Avenger aspect. After that, the shrine you wish to enter will give their own warrior trial, and once that is completed you will have entered the shrines and the old ways of equal training may begin anew for you."
It was another one of the nigh-ritualistic speeches this exarch gave, though Elias understood the meaning: before you could be aspect warriors, you had to be toughened up, hardened till you were ready to be an aspect warrior.
And today, that meant leaping over pits and climbing up pillars. The initiates were split into groups of four, with Elias being grouped up with Eridas, Niana and Khail. They were led to the pillar, which seemed to be made up of eight smaller pillars, twisted together like a great tree, and now that she could see it she could tell it was covered in hand-sized thorns, small cracks and other things to make it somewhat climbable, but nonetheless huge and not exactly easy to get up. For one thing, all the thorns were angled a couple degrees down, and most of the pillar was quite smooth.
"Alright," began an Avenger standing in front of a set of climbing harnesses, "You need to get from this pillar," he said, pointing to the pillar in front of them, "to that one," he said, pointing towards a similar pillar on the other end of the cathedral. "Now here's the catch," he continued, "You cannot touch the ground until you get to the other pillar, and you cannot fall. If you do fall, the climbing harness will save you and you'll have to start again back at this pillar. Once you're done that, you can stay here and I'll assign you individual tasks while you wait for the others to be done. The team is only as fast as it's slowest member," he concluded. "Who's first?" he asked.
Eridas stepped forward, first as usual, and strapped on the harness. Elias, impetuous as ever, was next, followed by Khail and lastly Niana. By the time Elias was up to the pillar, Eridas was already six feet up. Scowling, Elias thought That arrogant fool! He'll get himself killed one of these days… and began her ascent, unaware that her ascent up the pillar was just as reckless and rushed as his: barely stopping at all but practically leaping from foothold to foothold.
She lost sight of Eridas, of Khail, of Niana, of anyone and anything but the next handhold. The thorns, she found, were not sharp, and as long as you did it right you could grab a hold of them with relative ease. However, in her rush Elias didn't notice that one of the handholds was slightly more slippery than the others, one of the footholds too shallow. And so right as she was catching up with Eridas, Elias found herself slipping, falling, falling, falling, as though she had been up at least fifty meters. Realizing she still hadn't hit the ground, Elias looked down and saw that she had decelerated until she wasn't so much plummeting as drifting down, the wire saving her from the otherwise perhaps fatal fall. As she landed, she saw Khail falling. The Dire Avenger did not speak to her, barely even looked at her, merely pointed back at the pillar. The message was clear: "Get back up there and climb, otherwise you're nothing."
Still somewhat impetuous due to her now seeing Eridas nearly halfway up the pillar, but now tempered with a measure of caution, Elias began her climb. Don't think about it, Elias, she told herself, Just climb. hand over hand, foot over foot, just climb. Wait, how high is Eridas? she thought, allowing a brief glance up to see he was now approaching the ceiling, No! Don't think about that, just keep climbing…
She continued up the pillar, saw Eridas fall as he transitioned onto the ceiling. Niana was still near the bottom, Khail had fallen again, but Elias pressed onwards. She continued up, higher and higher, never looking down, until she got up to the top of the pillar. She saw a vine-like pattern formed on the ceiling, subtly embossed onto the mosaics and, as she climbed onto one of the branches of the great tree-pillar, she realized that she wouldn't be able to get to the vines with gradual motion: she would have to jump. Collecting herself for a moment, Elias steadied her nerves and leaped.
She soared through the air for just a moment, reaching out for a protruding stone vine as she did. Her hand caught the red vine which was embossed onto Fuegan's armour, felt as if she'd gripped it, then with a lurching feeling realized that she couldn't support her weight with just one hand. She fell again.
Climbing up, she attempted to find another way around the pillar. All hopes of beating Eridas had gone from her. Her hand itched as she climbed ever higher, her muscles beginning to tire on the ascent. How, she thought, am I ever going to get to the other side?
Elias did not try to jump this time. Instead, she circled round the pillar and found an easier route. She clung to the vine-like embossings, which seemed to themselves be covered in tiny divots where one could fit fingers and toes. Nonetheless, it was agonizing work pulling yourself along while all the gravity of the craftworld was pulling you down. Undaunted, Elias continued forward, telling her agonized muscles to shut up: this pain was nothing compared to what she'd already experienced. In addition, she was very strong, and as such was sure she'd make it to the other side. Khail, with his great bulk, might not. Niana, with her shyness and thin frame, might take forever. But Elias would get to the other side, that much she knew for certain as she edged along the battle of Hammerfell, climbing on embossed vines which flitted among friends and foes, circling around the helm of a Karandras one moment, only to pass by the power fist of a vile terminator the next. Up close, it was hard to tell the difference between aspect warrior and space marine.
She was not afraid of falling: the wires would catch her. She was not concerned with finishing first: she knew she could not beat Eridas, but knew also that she would succeed and do well. She was not distracted by what was around her nor haunted by the past: in this moment, her eyes, and mind were focused entirely on the next step. In this trance-like calm, Elias advanced, unhindered. So, she mused this is what the famous battle trance of the aspect warrior is like, then dismissed the thought, as it was threatening her concentration.
As she passed by the space marine chapter master's power glaive, she noticed that the pillar was coming up quickly. She followed the vine, getting ready for the transition onto one of the pillar's branches.
Snaking down, Elias found that this second pillar was much like the first, with thorns and divots for hand and footholds. It was good she was so strong for her size else she would certainly have fallen by now, but she found strength enough in her arms and legs to finish the task, touching down after what seemed like a separate lifetime where nothing else mattered but the climb.
Psychologically returning to the real world, Elias once again felt the concerns of ordinary life upon her: she was tired, her limbs were burning, her eyes were itchy and she was wondering if she'd finished first. Looking around, Elias saw that to her surprise she was in third place: Eridas seemed to have just barely beaten her, finishing second, while Niana, shy little Niana, had finished first by a huge degree.
Elias was rather shocked by this, but, as the initial surprise wore off, Elias realized that Niana had obviously been able to isolate herself more easily in the trance-like state than Elias or Eridas. And physically, though she was skinny and therefore probably not as physically strong as Elias, she had long limbs and probably weighed only a little more than Elias, not to mention probably had more nimble fingers for quickly catching handholds.
After getting some water, Elias was made to perform laps around the cathedral and jump over hurdles until Khail finally completed the climb.
Running, Elias found her muscles protesting, yet she couldn't stop lest the Avenger force her into yet more exhausting tasks. She completed the first lap, thinking I'm sure it'll only be a few minutes more, then despairing when she saw Khail struggling on the ceiling, not even halfway done. Running, leaping, sometimes falling, Elias couldn't help but notice Eridas growing further and further away as her short legs tried to keep up. Why can't I keep up? What makes them better than me? she asked herself, though she knew that right now it was her short legs and exhausted muscles which were causing this. She was sure she'd get a chance to shine in something else, perhaps fieldcraft or close combat.
In front of her, Niana had collapsed and was being hauled onto her feet by the supervising Dire Avenger. Seeing her forced to continue to run despite being past the point of collapse, Elias could not help but feel sympathy for Niana, but that was soon forgotten as it changed into resentment towards Khail and the dire avengers, who were the reason Niana was being forced to continue like this and then, mere minutes later, Elias herself succumbed, was forced back up, and made to run, slipping ever further into a state of mobile unconsciousness which went beyond exhaustion and wore her mental defences down: the first step into turning her, mentally at least, into a killing machine.
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Elias awoke, surrounded by leering mon-keigh soldiers. They had broken into Biel-Tan, sent commandos right into the Cathedral of Khaine, shot Niana and were about to kill her. They had pointed lasguns at her as she lay on her bed, but in the vital moment she saw a sword just within arm's reach.
She leapt out of bed and swung down at the first mon-keigh, shearing through his collarbone. She then stepped forward and hacked at the next, full of wild fury, though one of his companions warded her off with bayonet till she stepped in, punched him in the face and then swung horizontally as he stumbled back.
She felt a curiously familiar jarring sensation in her arm as her sword hit vertebrae, but nonetheless the mon-keigh's head flew off. As it arced to her right, Elias howled in rage, bloodlust and a deep undercurrent of resentment towards the entire mon-keigh species. She then leapt at the next one, knocking him back and then thrusting her blade through his gut.
She then hacked savagely at the next mon-keigh, a woman who was now drawing a pistol, and chopped her hand off before swinging diagonally up into her jaw.
It then occurred to Elias that she knew these mon-keigh: she'd killed them before, though she couldn't remember when. Rushing to Niana's side, she saw that she'd been shot with a lasgun in the shoulder, but as Elias kneeled down to inspect she was much shorter, less skinny and with different features, and her wounds had turned into bullet holes in her chest and abdomen. Kneeling beside Toryll's body, Elias was just about to let out a cry for help when she felt the world spiralling around her and lost consciousness.
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When Elias awoke, she felt pain from the previous day and a feeling of resentment directed at… someone. She also felt like she had forgotten something which had happened the previous night, but dismissed it as she went back to sleep, not remembering her dreams at all.