The ship's corridors, contrary to the warm colors of gold and red that decorated the walls and floor, were quite cold; with only the occasional decorative plant to break up the repetitive colors. But, without any other quarter presented to her, Isha could do little but sit there; back against the wall, arms wrapped around her knees.
Although the actual temperature of the floor and wall did not truly discomfort her, the sheer incredulity of dumping her there was as biting as any frigid storm.
After being taken back to the Emperor's dreadnought, she'd effectively been ignored; by the Emperor, by the Custodes, and although some of the much smaller human crew cast the curious eye towards her they took their lead from their liege and ignored her as well.
'Well, almost all of them.' Isha thought sadly. There were many that narrowed their eyes, and clenched their fists when their eyes noticed the pointy ears peeking out from under her hair. Those dock hands or engineers were swiftly escorted away from the premises by normal human guards.
At the very least, the Master of Mankind was avoiding an incident aboard his vessel.
She could guess the cause of their anger.
This ship was far away from human space, near the border worlds of the Aeldari Empire; where hunting had been a pastime of the so-called nobility and common folk alike. A shudder crossed her spine as she remembered the memories she gleaned from her children's minds, and the rage that forced the usually invisible edict of Asuryan to appear, binding her to her arboreal throne.
It had been a long time after her freedom from Khaine's tortures; after the civil war of the gods had burned out.
The Aeldari had finally created a post-scarcity society; and she watched them as they rebuilt worlds, created wonders, and began to pursue various arts to perfection.
Then the perversion of all that they were began.
Even when she went to Vaul with Kuronous to create the Spirit Stones to circumvent the edict, Asuryan's chains didn't bind her; which told of the force of the feeling she had been consumed by when she saw what the Aeldari had begun to do.
If these men and women aboard the ship were from this sector of space, it was little surprise that some of them had been the victims of her people's cruelty.
Though it did nothing to explain why the Emperor was here; especially with such a large fleet. Diminished though she was, and partially blinded by the Emperor's wards, she could see the vague silhouettes of other human starships traveling along the path burnt by the Emperor's presence in the Warp.
Isha stretched out her being, carefully avoiding the Emperor's psychic wards within the ship, and felt the degree that space had stretched; the one truly universal way of telling time in the constantly expanding universe. Back calculating from the time she had last measured time this way, she was surprised to realize that several decades had already passed since the Fall.
'Cursed Warp.' She thought, shaking her head. Time was even more tumultuous than it had been in the Sea of Souls. What had felt like mere moments, falling from the Pantheon, had actually been far longer in the real world than she'd realized.
'Could the Imperium really have expanded so quickly?' she wondered.
Decades were a long time for humans, and her people in this time of need, but empires did not appear overnight; and in the lifetime of an empire, a decade was less than a blink of an eye.
Her mind wandered, going over the various worlds she had watched over from upon her throne.
The last time she had cast her eyes on humanity, they were still fractured into multiple factions across the stars; and even on their own homeworld, Chaos cultists and madmen killed each other with gleeful abandon, endlessly repeating history. At least, it would have seemed that way to an Aeldari; Isha mused. Reviewing the events on a human timescale, their greatest wars might have looked glorious, only happening once or twice every generation.
She sighed, already bored despite the fact, she had spent far longer bound to her throne by the edict. At the very least, she had her plants and animals to distract her then.
Looking at one of the plants, she reached out with her mind; entering its essence, listening to the water being drawn up by capillary action along vascular xylem, as the outer phloem pumped sugars and enzymes down into its roots to break down nitrates and minerals; simultaneously feeding the numerous bacteria in the dirt with fresh carbon.
"Do not test me." The Emperor spoke.
Isha cast a sideways glance upwards at him, nose wrinkling at the smell of scorched Warp stuff from the Emperor's silent teleportation.
"Should I feel honored or insulted that you yourself act as my guard?" She remarked darkly, unmoving from her position on the floor.
The Emperor snorted. "I would not risk anyone else, and anyone else would be found wanting."
A dry chuckle came from Isha's mouth. "Do you think so little of me to truly believe that I would make an enemy of you when I am the enemy of the Four?"
"Your kind is as mercurial as they are merciless."
There was a moment of silence as the two looked at eachother; the other humans, quickly removing themselves from the premises, unconsciously feeling the psychic pressure radiating between the two of them.
"What are you doing here?" Isha finally broke the silence, equal parts curious and wary. "This is not your home."
"We." The Emperor spat out angrily. "are needed here to deal with the remains of the misery your kind wrought."
"The Eye of Terror is far from here, and I can sense the other ships you have coming. It is a far cry from what you will need."
Although vague, Isha could see the shadows of guns and other weapons of war on the ships that followed. Too many for a simple patrol or guard, yet not enough to weather an assault in the Warp.
"The Warp is not my current concern, for now. My people are."
Isha raised an eyebrow. "Have you come to save your people from Chaos, so far from the seat of man?" A surprising sentiment, much softer than she had originally expected from the Master of Mankind, and bizarre as Chaos was only slightly more prevalent here than anywhere else.
He returned her inquisitive stare with an unmoving look.
"Why save a few thousand when I can prevent the death of billions."
"You…" Shock robbed her of her voice for one moment, before she rose from the ground. "You dare!" The air around her began to twist, miniature tornadoes forming at her fingertips as she rose. "Those are my children!"
The Emperor was not here for the Warp, or his people. He was here to cull the overflow of Aeldari running from the remains of their homes. To stem the flood of refugees, spreading out towards the scattered ruined colonies and worlds of sundered humanity.
These refugees were from the Core worlds of the Aeldari empire. Proto-Pleasure Cultists and initiates, not steeped deep enough in Slaanesh's taint to be consumed instantaneously, yet not entirely blameless of the corruption that had killed so many.
An infinitely small fraction of a percentage point of the populations those planets had, but that still meant thousands upon thousands of Aeldari were heading to the various worlds around their empire. Living beings who would need planets and resources to survive.
Of course, the planets most suited for life outside the Aeldari empire were usually the habitats of other alien species; humans included.
"Then it would have been better for the both of us if you had taught them restraint." The Emperor replied bluntly; unmoved by the new turbulent psychic energies radiating from Isha's form.
"They are broken, and pose no united threat to man." Isha almost growled. "This place is far away from your core worlds. Why murder them in a place where only the faintest traces of mankind have reached?"
"Mankind's empire will spread across the stars." He retorted, quietly. "I would rather have the process be a reconquest than a rebuilding."
The winds around Isha stopped for a moment, a silence before a quickly growing storm.
"For the scattered colonized and abandoned worlds, unaware of you or your armies…"
The plants beside her trembled and grew with her anger, affected by the psychic energies overflowing from her essence.
"Worlds you in turn plan to conquer and subjugate with force when they've ripened far in the future…"
Thorny vines and fanged leaves stretched out from the plants as thick roots spilled out from the dirt; crossing the floor and walls, searching for a gap to bury into.
"To leave empty worlds uninhabited by your kind free of competition…"
Her eyes blazed with psychic energy as she stared back at him.
"You commit genocide on my children in their time of greatest need?"
"Your people have sacrificed thousands of others to save one of your race." The Emperor replied calmly, strangling the plants with his own psychic power; withering them all in an instant. "Do not lecture me on the weight of alien life compared to your own."
Isha clenched her teeth with all her might as her rage rippled across her; sharpening nails into claws, elongating canines into fangs.
"At least..." She spat, wrestling with the wildness within her. "Let me speak to them." Her form returned to that of the fair Goddess of Fertility. "If all you need is for them to be gone from your domain, then use me. Let me send them back; convince them to join the other ones in self-imposed exile." Bitterly, she looked into the brown eyes of the emperor with her own silvery ones. "You made a tool out of me, so then use me."
The two of them stared at each other, neither backing down. After a long moment, the Emperor opened his mouth.
"... We are chasing an Eldar raiding party. A rag-tag assortment of pirate vessels and repurposed pleasure cruisers that now serve as slave carriers. Their ships will burn, whether you convince them or not. The wounds they have left on my crew are too great."
Isha breathed out, letting the remaining rage out of her body.
"If you must slake your people's bloodlust, so be it." Better the Wraithbone constructs than the living occupants. "But, where shall my children go?"
He shrugged. "I did not care before, so I had not thought of it."
Isha's mind dug deep into her memories of the borders of the Aeldari domain; ancient holdouts from the War in Heaven, forgotten battlefields, and buried bunkers. After a few seconds, she found what she was looking for.
"There is an Aeldari world that used to hold a colony. Its environment is harsh, too harsh for humans, but survivable by the Aeldari."
The Emperor tilted his head at this. "You would not make it a better place for them?"
"And make it another mouthwatering target for your empire?" This time it was her turn to snort. "I think not."
"Mother to the Aeldari indeed." Chuckled the Master of Mankind. "If only they had inherited your foresight."
"If they had, you may have never reached the stars."
"Perhaps…" And a great weariness radiated from him for a brief instant. "But they didn't and we did."