Meanwhile, in Hope, Phaeron Rahkaak was quite pleased with how things were going.

Hope was advancing ahead of schedule. At this rate, the conversion to full Terran technology might take only one hundred years, not two hundred. A large part of the reason for that advancement was a bit ethically dubious and very much artificial… the STC had plans for a technology designed to imprint knowledge into the human mind. It could impart knowledge of things that would take years to learn in a matter of months. Hope had not possessed the technical knowledge to make it but the Necrons did, and they had combined it with Mindshackle Scarabs to create a very specific learning tool. Like the way the Mechanicus tech priests were imparted with instinctive knowledge in their artificial wombs, it allowed for swift technological advancement.

The reason it was ethically dubious was because a significant minority of the population, perhaps five percent, had an extremely poor reaction to it. Those unfortunates would typically develop severe mental disorders, ranging from anxiety disorders and psychosis to catatonia and death. But as knowledge of technology became a pass to high status and even, perhaps, immortality, there were many young people willing to undergo the procedure. It helped that if the bad reaction was caught early enough, the damage could be reversed and all those using the modified Mindshackle Scarabs were closely monitored.

The population of Hope was also exploding. Rahkaak had some mixed feelings about it – too many organics could make the world a trash heap – but it was what was needed to fuel the intense technological expansion. They also needed the excess population to fuel the war effort, the biotransference, and also for colonization efforts. Human life was a very important resource and at this point in time, and for a very long time in the future, they could not have enough.

What also pleased Phaeron Rahkaak was the status of the Uhnashret Dynasty. They were also in a phase of expansion unlike anything she had seen before. While that had some dangers – they had previously survived by being too poor to bother taking – as they were now part of the greater Sautekh dynasty, it mostly offered opportunities. Imotekh was offering them planets, that they could colonize and take for the Hopian humans. A top notch terraforming team, with the equipment to actually move the planet's orbit a bit, had been dispatched to take a particularly promising world.

(If the Night Lords ever came back to it, they were going to be aghast at what had happened to Tsagualsa)

(models indicated that it had the basic resources to be a very lovely, tropical world, if nurtured correctly)

Now, though, Phaeron Rahkaak was contemplating something else. Improved biotransference was a reality. Rahkaak had observed the process… before the human went through the fires, the Necron body was equipped with a prepared globe of ghost wood. The wood would capture the soul and be allowed to remain, attached to the Necron body. If that attachment was not disturbed, the globe would slowly melt away, vanishing completely in a week as the soul migrated to the body. Rahkaak had no idea precisely how it worked, and suspected the humans didn't either, but it did in fact work.

Now, though, Rahkaak wanted more. She had Manric's reports and had been electrified by the knowledge that a soul, even a fragment of one, provided immunity to the Flayer virus. Rahkaak wondered if perhaps that was because Necrons were fundamentally soulless and if they had one, the curse could not recognize them as Necrons. Whatever the reason, though, Rahkaak knew what she wanted. She wanted a soul.

But how? Where would these souls come from? They could not simply harvest them from their human subjects… could they? Creating them from the Warp would likely be impossible. And even if they could somehow acquire souls, would the same technique work to transplant them? Did it only work because the soul of the human undergoing biotransference was innately connected to the mind inhabiting the new body? Or would it work for anyone?

Phaeron Rahkaak didn't know, so she did the obvious and summoned Simokh.

"I have already been contemplating these questions." Ah, why was she not surprised? "I have also been engaging Researcher Zivok in the pursuit of this knowledge." Ah, him. He was… something of an interesting character and Rahkaak had mixed feelings. He hid it well, but she had detected a complete amorality in him that echoed some Crypteks she did not remotely like. "He has made suggestions that are considered immoral and unethical, but are still tentatively approved by the STC." Rahkaak had noticed that the humans tended to use STC as a final arbiter over what was permitted under the Code of Terra.

"What suggestion is that?" Rahkaak asked and Simokh explained.

"The first issue we face is the procuring of souls." Yes. "Zivok has suggested that they be harvested from human clones, specifically grown for the purpose." That… sounded vile, but no worse than how the Necrons were re-using their dead. "STC has noted that it is unethical and immoral, but still accepted beneath the Code of Terra as until they are actually allowed to gain sentience, clones do not have rights. Also, ethical decisions often involve trade-offs… given the suffering caused by the Flayer virus, to all parties, some ethically dubious behavior can be sanctioned." That did make sense. Rahkaak could not even imagine how much organic life had gone to sating the hunger of the cursed. "Further, once our entire race has been re-souled, this measure will no longer be needed."

"I see… but what are the other issues?" Simokh had said first issue. He nodded before continuing.

"The second issue is our lack of test subjects. We are currently experimenting with common warriors, but they are not entirely sentient so results may be invalid." What did he mean? "If they are able to be re-souled but go insane, for instance, we will not know if this is because they were always insane or because of fatal incompatibility with the soul." Ah… so they were anticipating insanity as a possible outcome. That gave Rahkaak a small shiver. This could be dangerous. "We require Necron test subjects, Crypteks or of Lord rank or higher." That… was going to be very difficult…

"I see. I will reach out to Imotekh to see if they can be supplied." Rahkaak hated it, but it was the only way. Imotekh might be able to provide failures, Overlords and Lords who deserved punishment. Or, perhaps, even those who had dared to plot against him. And failing all that… failing all that, he could declare war on another Dynasty to acquire enemies to use. Rahkaak was not a warlike Phaeron, quite the opposite, and she truly hated to think Imotekh would do that but she knew better.

When it came to solving the issue of the Flayer virus, the Stormlord would take any action necessary for success.

Manric looked at the table during Zahndrekh's victory feast, feeling a deep and achingly familiar sadness.

I never expected to feel this way again. This was the sadness he felt when his men did their work, saving what they could by sacrificing their bodies. The painful knowledge that the lost were gone to much worse than death. Manric toyed with his cup, not truly seeing it. I thought I was past this. But now it was come back, all new again, and it hurt.

Manric felt Obyron's gaze on him and knew Zahndrekh's Vargard had noticed his mood. Ahmakeph and Itolyx had noticed as well and were exchanging a concerned glance. Ah, actually, everyone except Zahndrekh had noticed his mood. He was still lost in –

"Manric? You are not enjoying the feast as usual. Is there something wrong?" Zahndrekh asked and Manric hesitated, glancing toward the Tau governor that had been captured and was currently tied to a chair. He was a member of the Ethereal Caste and Manric did not like him one bit. There was something distinctly wrong about him, a strange opaqueness to his abilities. And what emotions he was getting… if Manric had been less powerful, or not bonded to the spear, he might have thought the Tau just had a highly disciplined mind. But instead, he was getting the distinct feeling that the emotions coming from him were fake. That put him extremely on guard, he had never sensed anything like it.

Worst of all, though, was that Manric thought he understood the Necron tongue and was calmly listening.

"I cannot speak while our esteemed guest is present. I believe he understands our language." Manric said for the benefit of the other Overlords. Zahndrekh would just be confused.

"Of course he does, he is necrontyr!" Ah, Zahndrekh… Manric might have laughed a little if his mood weren't so utterly terrible. He just shook his head and toyed with his cup a bit more. He absolutely would not speak about this where the Ethereal could hear. Fortunately, all the Tau had heard so far had been Zahndrekh's bombastic victory speech. "Ah… I see you feel about this strongly… well, I am sure our esteemed guest has had enough to eat. Vargard, could you please show him back to his quarters?" The Tau actually did have quarters, after a fashion, since he was going to be ransomed back to his people. Manric intended to wildly change Imotekh's instructions when it came to negotiating, and explain his reasons to the Stormlord later.

(he hoped that wouldn't go too badly for him)

(it would probably be fine)

Manric waited for Obyron to return before beginning to speak.

"I regret to inform everyone that unfortunately, it seems my forces of necrontyr are not immune to the plague as we thought." There was a variety of reactions to that. Shock, dismay, resignation and even a strange, sick satisfaction. "So far, thirty-four of my warriors have reported with symptoms. They are currently isolated as we confirm that they are infected… once confirmed, as I am sure it will be, they will be offered the choice between mercy or exile." Manric was sure they would all pick mercy. And the most tragic thing was, they didn't know yet what was wrong… they had all reported to the Crypteks with the same complaint, a strange sensation of hunger. So innocent, all of them, thinking it was just a minor thing. "The Lion Hearts are particularly badly hit. Twenty-two of the infected are from them." That was because they had been the ones in tightest quarters with the Flayers in the melee.

"Oh… that is terribly unfortunate," Zahndrekh said, subdued at the mention of the 'plague'. In his dream of the past, he'd incorporated the Flayer curse as a terrible plague that cost the victims their sanity and covered them in infectious boils. "If Manric's forces are suffering so badly, the rest must be as well." That was true. "I know many try to hide it… everyone, please be diligent. And if anyone here is suffering from it… I know how hard it is, but please, for the sake of everyone, please report it." Manric scanned the emotions of the Overlords in the room, searching for that strange hunger he'd found in Ahmakeph. To his relief, he didn't find it. Manric wondered though. Would he be able to pick it up in regular warriors and Immortals? Perhaps he should help Itolyx and Ahmakeph to find the problems in their units.

That put a damper on the feast and it ended early, much to the relief of the Overlords who hated it. After it was done, though, Ahmakeph had the same though Manric did.

"Can you detect the hunger of the Flayer virus?" Manric nodded. "Can you check my forces? I would like to root out the infection as fast as possible."

"Also, are you aware you have closed yourself to interstitial messaging?" What, he – OH! Manric winced internally as he re-opened himself to the networks. Itolyx tilted his head slightly. "We were very concerned." They had been trying to reach him. Manric felt awful for worrying them.

"I'm very sorry. I think I did that right after I found out about the problem, then forgot to re-open it." He'd wanted time alone with his own thoughts, undisturbed by any of the chatter his warriors customarily engaged in.

"It is nothing. Can you check my forces as well?" Itolyx asked and Manric nodded. Soon he was busy scanning all the Necron warriors and Immortals and, to his distress, he found several of them in the beginning stages of infection. They were all removed from their fellows and quarantined. It made Manric feel a deep despair.

Was there no way to fix this?

Negotiating with the Tau went extremely well.

In most ways, Manric loved speaking to the Water Caste. They were beautifully bright, their emotions were clear and clean, and their gentle persuasiveness made Manric laugh internally. Sadly for them, Manric's empathic telepathy was a great benefit in such negotiations… Manric could tell what was very important to them and what wasn't, which made it easier for him to hold certain things hostage to get what HE wanted.

What the Tau particularly wanted was access to the gas giant in the system. Manric didn't quite understand what was so special about it, but he knew Imotekh also desired it. Part of his instructions were that if the Tau needed access to the gas giant, he could grant it, as long as the Necrons also had unfettered access. Without his empathic telepathy Manric might not have known how deeply the Tau needed that gas giant, they were careful not to betray themselves, but he did so he bargained hard for it.

The one fly in the ointment of the bargaining was the presence of an Ethereal and this one was worse than the first. He was radiating emotions like a normal person but to Manric, every single one was fake. And as he thought about it more, that became even more alarming… Manric had not encountered a single race in the galaxy who could do this to his empathic telepathy.

Manric spared a moment to think about it, as the Water Caste poured over his offered terms. Empathic telepathy was not an active ability, it was passive, so Necrons were completely open to it. Blackstone protections were meant to stop active attacks, not passive absorption. The shields of human psykers were the same, completely useless to stop Manric from picking up their emotions. Even Eldar seemed to have no real defense and Manric thought that was perhaps because they saw no REASON to have a defense. Empathic telepathy was not a common gift and was generally he provenance of healers. And while Manric would never dream of deliberately using it on Tyranids, he knew from his battles that it worked just fine on them. Fortunately, Manric was very, very good at filtering out and ignoring such things on the battlefield.

So why were the Ethereals blocking his empathic telepathy? And why, in the name of all things holy, were they broadcasting emotions that he would swear were false? Manric thought only the spear was letting him catch that they were giving him false impressions and if he'd still had skin, his skin would be crawling. The more he was around them the more they seemed like something fundamentally alien and repulsive.

(Manric couldn't know, but he was reacting to the Ethereal caste in a way similar to humans reacting to a Pariah)

All of this meant he'd changed Imotekh's plans completely. Manric wanted no Tau at all on the Tomb World planet, because they would insist on an Ethereal being present. They would re-colonize it with humans and Necrons. Meanwhile, he was, frankly, kidnapping a group of Tau to serve the Stormlord's test of the Tau race. They were already on the hybrid Hopian ships meant to transport living beings, and they had been oversupplied with food looted from the planet. Several of them had already departed, taking the Tau to a staging planet, where they would wait to be resettled on a new planet that was currently in the process of terraforming.

(the Night Lords really would be upset. Unfortunately for them, by the time they discovered what had happened, a Necron Overlord would have laid claim to their old stronghold and the whole system would have turned into a military staging area against the Orks)

(trying to take it just wouldn't be worth it)

Of course, there was the problem of the Tau objecting to the kidnapping of their people, but Manric had handled that quite cleverly. He was making use of the Chaos spill that had come out of the Necron Tomb. It had caused a lot of death and destruction, and what little records he would supply would indicate all these Tau had died or gone missing in that disaster. Given that Necrons had little interest in organics anyway, unlike the drukhari, Manric thought the Tau would have no reason to suspect.

Manric was slightly concerned at all the liberties he was taking with the Stormlord's instructions, but part of being a good commander was taking initiative. Manric thought the Ethereal Caste posed a direct threat to Imotekh's empire and could not be allowed to exist within it. And he was still obeying the intent of the instructions… the Stormlord would be able to test the Tau as a slave race, just far away from their own empire and without the Ethereals.

Hopefully, Imotekh would see it the same way.

"What is going on?" Ko-Shoka had a distinct feeling that despite what the Necron had said, they were not being ransomed.

One reason he thought that was they had been outfitted with something called a Mindshackle Scarab. Fortunately he couldn't remember it happening – apparently it was designed to be completely painless and slip in when you weren't noticing – but he was told it was partly fused with his spine and brain. However it did what it did, though, Ko-Shoka knew he was unable to take any violent action.

The other reason he thought they weren't being ransomed was because they were on a human ship. The ship itself was odd, a strange combination of Necron technology but obvious human workmanship. Ko-Shoka only knew that because his fellow prisoners included many, many Earth Caste and they were distracting themselves admiring the ship. Apparently, it was extremely finely made.

Then Ko-Shoka was taken out of the hold and to a room, to his confusion. Confusion that ebbed a bit when a Necron came into the room, with a familiar sign on his chest cartouche.

"Ah, it's me… do you remember me? I know I didn't give you my name." The way he spoke, though, identified him to Ko-Shoka.

"You are the one who took command after the leader had fallen. The one who mentioned that… substance getting into the water table." Ko-Shoka said with certainty. The Necron bobbed his head.

"My name is Damien. And that stuff did get into the water table, by the way." Oh no. "We've evacuated the whole area and we're trying to cleanse out the chaos, but it's possible that entire continent will be uninhabitable." What! "Right now, it keeps throwing up chaos spawns… we're having uh, fun." Well it wasn't Ko-Shoka's problem now, but he still felt a bit badly for the Necrons. That was the kind of 'fun' no one ever wanted. "I wanted to see you though, because I feel terrible about lying to you. I didn't know I was lying but well, things change and it seems that I was."

"We're not being ransomed." Ko-Shoka stated and the Necron nodded.

"The plan was to keep this planet a Tau world, paying tithe to the Sautekh but somehow, that plan has completely changed… now this is just going to be a Necron and human world. But we still want your species in the Sautekh empire so for some reason, you're all being taken far away." … "To colonize a newly terraformed world. I'm not sure why we're doing this but everyone is speculating that it has something to do with your Ethereal caste."

"You want to separate us from our Ethereal caste. Do you imagine we will forsake the Greater Good?" Ko-Shoka demanded, feeling a deep resentment at this. Did they think they were so weak willed? The Necron tilted his head to one side.

"I don't know anything about that and I don't think anyone cares. I think… this is all speculation and maybe I shouldn't be telling you this, but our Commander is a telepath." Ko-Shoka was very surprised by that. Necrons could have warp powers? "Something is up with your Ethereal caste. I don't know what it is, but he doesn't want them around. I don't think it has anything to do with the Greater Good, it's just the Ethereals in particular." Ko-Shoka wasn't sure what to make of that. Human psykers and Eldar had interacted with the Ethereals, what did this one think he had detected?

"So we have no say in this," Ko-Shoka said with a feeling of helpless anger. The Necron drooped a little, strangely expressive for metal.

"No. I'm sorry. I just wanted you to know." Well, now he knew. "There's… there's something else." What? "Maybe I shouldn't put this on you but I just… think you might want to know. You know how Necrons can recall from death?" Yes, Ko-Shoka was aware of it. It made killing them very difficult but he envied this Necron. His team was all alive. "We… we came back but… those monsters we fought had a… disease. It's very infectious." Wait, what? "I was the only one who didn't catch it. I don't know why." Oh. Ko-Shoka suddenly realized that the Necron was suffering powerful grief. "They all opted for suicide. I'm sorry, I just thought you should know."

"…" Ko-Shoka looked down at his hands for a moment. He wanted to ask what he was to do with that information, but he also realized that he preferred to know. It would have felt wrong, believing those Necrons he'd met and respected, if only briefly, were still alive and well when they were actually all dead. "I am sorry for your loss. My team… well, you know about that." It was just him and Ma-Tien left. The Necron nodded sadly.

"Well, I just wanted you to know." Yes. The meeting ended then and Ko-Shoka was taken back to the hold. Everyone wanted to know what had happened, so he began explaining their future. As he did, he tried to make peace with it.

It wasn't ideal, but there were worse fates.