So, it's finally happening?" Morygen asked at my side as I watched the sky blaze with hundreds of meteors.
"It was going to happen eventually," I smiled tightly. "He is not the type to waste a priceless tool."
We stood at the end of fifteen by six miles of paved cement at the foot of what would become my Fortress Monastery, were we to survive the next few hours. The great mountain of steel had been forged from the ruins of the Ember-Like-Spires into a grand Guild Hearth to represent both the binding of the guilds into a single force and the renewal of Calengwag.
"Shame this father of yours did not arrive last year," Trystane commented at to my other side as he adjusted his floor-length scarf over his immaculately forged power armor, young save the weary look in his eyes. "Would have made the Moonfall easier."
That last campaign had been a hideous thing, the last Purgation of the Void which had finally marked Calengwag's salvation had been one the bloodiest of our long war.
And yet.
"This is for the best," I admitted. "He gives more leeway to the ones that successfully conquer their worlds."
"Such an ugly term," Morien, Master of the Pearl Guild, commented with his jovial way. "Conquest. I do not think I like it."
"You will adjust!" Trystane clasped his friend's shoulder and pointed up to the heavens. "Beyond the sky is the rest of Man and the true Void. We are needed my friend, it is why we all agreed to this!"
I swallowed the bile that threatened to rise as I heard him sound so optimistic, the years had been filled with mistakes. Trystane had paid more than most for my mistakes.
All the guildmasters which surrounded me were young, their bodies regressed to and kept at seven Calengwag years to prepare them for their fate.
"You said that it was 'Unification," Morien shook his head, his white bangs shifting along like the snows of his homeland. "That word tastes much better. Honey on the lips rather than vinegar."
Dinada, Master of Onyx, sneered at their squabble, "It does not matter, they come and we are sworn. The question is only whether they will mesh with us or seek to overwhelm us."
"Do continue squabbling," The emissary poked another sweetmeat into his mouth, incongruous in his simple black robe amongst so many ornate warsuits. "It is not often that I enjoy such spectacle."
Morygen shook her head while fingering her silver pendant and eyeing the crowds of nobles lining either side of the field, kings and emperor's kneeling along with them. Beyond them were thousands of warriors from every kingdom and guild that Calengwag could offer and beyond them throngs of others in stands that had been carved along the entire five hundred feet incline of the Serpent's Maw canyons with huge holo-screens broadcasting the scene both to them and to hundreds of stadiums around our world.
Morygen was not looking at them, her eyes were for the Ailbe banner and the family around it. Standing close and in a place of paramount honor close to the Gwyar royals.
Not a single face among them had been with us at the beginning.
"I miss her to," I whispered so that only she could hear.
"It's not that," she sighed as she looked to one of the boys kneeling behind his elders.
A young boy nearing manhood, his hair bright for an Ailbe but with the familiar jade in his eyes and a familiar set to his features.
"We have been through this," I tried to reassure her. "He will not be taken."
"He is of us," She frowned. "Yet we either deny him his rightful place or risk his life."
She had a point, the boy was no Voidbane but he was already able to match Trystane with a sword, a feat which no other mortal I knew could boast.
"I will think of something," I assured her. "If we are not bombed to death by a fleet of angry Imperials."
Which was a possibility even if Merlin assured me that the Authority generators would help with that.
The meteors broke their decent and began to float in the sky around us like a school of steel sea predators which eclipsed the sun as they passed.
One ship in particular hung low and reflected gold around its fringes.
"It's really named after a horse?" Morygen asked, mischief hiding awe.
"To be fair," I chuckled quietly. "Hereallyloved that horse. More than he will ever love any of us if I have the right of it."
"Well that's cheerful," Morygen grinned.
"In grim dark future, there is only cheer," I deadpanned. "It does not have quite the ring to it."
"If it is cheerful then I will personally break every ring the galaxy," My wife countered.
"Hold on to that thought," I chuckled as the dozens of other shadows split from the greater form and came down with an impressive speed.
Long winged VTOL craft of surprising elegance swam in neat circles that made our own aircraft seem like clumsy constructs in comparison before turning to land on the other end of the field from our own stands in a neat half-circle.
They craft echoed their dying engines as five ramps fell in perfect coordination down onto the paved earth and disgorged five perfect formations marching in flawless unison.
It was the first time I ever saw an Astartes, a Space Marine.
They were giants in freshly-polished ceramite plate, bolters held in parade march and red visors looking forwards as they marched towards us. They had a deftness to their movements that no human could rival along with a sheer physicality that radiated out from them and seemed to almost overwhelm the masses as they formed the outer flanks of the advancing arrowheads. A fluid and yet heavy grace that was at odds with common reason.
I saw a number of banners held aloft by the two advancing companies, telling of victories and battles which I had no context for. Their armor was still the unpainted grey of the First Founding and littered with marks of honor which I understood no better than the banners. The largest of which was the white of their left pauldrons, a black open-jawed lion.
Phobos, at a guess. The Greek deity of fear.
Beyond that, I did understand one other symbol.
I understood the marking on their other shoulder.
II
Either coincidence or I was the Second among my brothers.
Between the flanking companies came two formations of human women numbering sixty.
Unblinking eyes starred out from heads shaven save for a crimson topknot which swayed in the wind as they marched with swords, bolters and flamers held close. Their armor was more finely made than that which clad the Astartes and they held their heads up almost as if in a challenge to the world around them.
I had been expecting my creator to bring them, his Null-Maidens. The Sisters of Silence.
Between the Sisters marched twenty beings which towered over the Astartes the way they towered over humans. Each was clad in a gold that put the finest jewels in the audience to shame, all swathed in crimson cloths. They bore spears and standards of breathtaking make and wore conical helmets invoking the image of great eagles in flight.
Frankly they made almost everyone else present looking like paupers in comparison.
But no one was looking at them.
At the lead were four figures.
One was an Astartes nearly the height of a custodian with the numeral II etched on his breastplate and left pauldron, a sword at his hip. The same pattern on his right shoulder.
Another towered over the Custodians in armor and arms even finer than that of his brothers, his head looking at the world with the perfect fusion of warrior, scholar and courtier.
That one, I could guess was Constantine Valdor. First among the Custodian Guard.
A woman with of the Sisters with armor that would draw tears from artisans and a sword at her back nearly her height.
She was Jenetia Krole, eldest of the Sisters.
Both were juggernauts, figures of legend who commanded respect beyond argument and carried themselves like gods striding the earth.
No one looked to them either.
They only sawhim.
He walked a few paces ahead of the contingent.
He wore no armor save for a simple sheath of gold etched in aurumite patterns in a script forgotten to the world. He carried no weapon in his hands which hung loosely to his sides.
He was not tall.
He was perhaps a hundred and fifty centimeters.
He was fit but not overly muscled.
His aquiline nose, thin lips and noble features were not particularly noteworthy.
His black hair reached his collar.
And absolutely none of it mattered.
Something about him, something about his presence pierced through any protection of human audacity or the nature of our people.
It was not psychic, it was something far more primal.
The way he carried himself, the look in his amber eyes.
It was every animal instinct screaming that you were in the presence of a higher creature.
It was the urge to throw yourself at his feet and beg for his blessing, to swear your loyalty in the hopes of being accepted among his people.
It was the urge tobow.
"He's more impressive than you said," Morygen muttered next to me in High Gothic.
"Yap," Was the best that I could manage while keeping my composure.
His was starring at me. Holding my eyes locked in place with an unerring focus.
I didnotwant to know what it was like for a normal person to see him. It seemed like it would be death, like begging for your reason to leave you as your mind was melted by his radiance.
The worst part was that I could see the slightest traces of amusement on his expression and Iknewthat he could read me like a book. He did notneedtelepathy to do it.
All fell to their knees as he passed and we on the dais fell to one knee as he came before us.
I should have looked down but his eyes would not give me leave to look away.
"You know me?" A voice so immaculate in its command that words fail to describe it.
I swallowed before answering, vividly aware of the screens floating above us. "Yes."
"Do you know yourself?" He asked without a trace of a human expression as if he were inspecting a piece for sale.
Another swallow of saliva, "Yes."
"Do you know why I come?" He said each word with a slow and deliberate pace, etching each syllable into the minds of those present.
"Yes," I had nothing better to say.
"And what is expected of you?" He asked.
"Yes," Was the only word that I seemed to know at that moment.
"And will you obey?" He asked.
"Yes," I repeated.
"And what are you called?" He asked.
I blanked.
I could not even think to recall my name as he looked at me.
"Galtine," Morygen forced the words out of her jaw clenched so hard that I could hear her jaw threat to crack from fear. "His name is Galtine."
The Emperor's stare was like a hammer blow as his eyes flicked to my wife, her head dipped against her straining and her knees trembled.
Then something unexpected happened his lips arched so slightly that it could not be called a human smile.
"From Galatine?" He asked her.
She trembled and forced the stiff muscles of her neck to raise just enough to look at his bare feet, "H- he said that was the root, yes."
Her words came out from between heavy breaths under his presence.
"Galtine," he savored the word. "Galatine was the sister of the most celebrated blade on Terra before it was Terra, the sword that loved the sun but lived as a shadow."
His smiled broadened slightly and his head dipped once, "Will you be my Galatine? My sword to wield against shadows? My weapon to wield in battle that will win neither of us glory?"
It was framed as a question but it was not one.
My purpose, those were his words.
I sucked in a breath and forced myself into composure as I nodded.
"I will be your weapon as was the purpose of my birth," I answered.
Then the presence receded into the man and everyone presence let go of a breath that they were not certain that they were holding.
"Rise my Second," He took hold of my hands as I stood. He was a bit more than half my height and yet I felt like the smallest pebble in existence even with the force of his mere presence forced back. "Rise my son and take your place as my sword against that which you call the Void."
The crowds and army beyond were cheering, they might have been doing so for the entire time and I would have been deaf to it.
"Rise my dear," he offered Morygen a smile and a hand which she took shakily. It was all that she could do to stand without trembling.
"Calengwag is yours, Your Grace," My voice was still distant with shock.
"No, My son," the man shook his head gently. "Calengwag is Terra's and Terra is Calengwag. Mankind belongs to every man and every man to Mankind. That is Unification."
I wish I could have said some words in defiance, some clever comment to show my independence.
It would have been false but it would have made me feel better.
He owned us before he had even spoken.