**Author's notes: The subject matter of this chapter was an editing casualty of my big rewrite, and was supposed to show up much earlier. When I did the rewrite, I couldn't find a good place for it, and this was the next best place I could find for it.**
Evoray Nox was cold. His multiple wounds bled prodigiously as the floundering Farseer lay hiding in a dirty dead-end alley with his beloved wife Zerine, who was slowly advancing toward death in his arms. He didn't think it would end like this. Outside the alley, Wheeler servitor creatures gibbered and laughed as they randomly murdered the local Mon-keigh.
"How could all of this have happened?" Evoray rasped, his overwhelming grief blazing like sunlight. The Farseer's severely injured wife smiled in his embrace, and the two of them continued to lay bleeding upon a pile of refuse in a wretched shadowy corner of an alien city.
"'Tis a shame, yes?" Zerine weakly laughed, her skin paling from blood loss. Her voice was growing weaker and weaker. "This almost feels like a joke! Like, you're a Farseer, but you have such short sight! You're a myopic Farseer! Ha ha! Maybe you need glasses? A funny joke!" the broken Shadowseer coughed a laugh. "How did you not see all of this coming, my dear beloved wayward husband? Could it be that your gifts of far seeing are flawed, and that fate has decided to work against you?"
Evoray turned toward Zerine, who curled up lovingly in his arms. He noticed that her makeshift bandages were ineffective in staunching the flow of blood from the massive wound to her torso. She was still heavily bleeding, and tiny congealing crystals sparkled in the dim morning light that penetrated this miserable hiding space. The Farseer had bound her wound with loose bandages torn from his own black robe, but Zerine required far serious medical attention. From the sound of her raspy labored breathing, the Farseer concluded that she had suffered a lung injury, but he was determined to save his wife somehow, no matter how fate presently bent against him! "Try not to speak," Evoray whispered. "I'm going to get you out of here. The Wheeler creatures will move on, and I will save us! Just hold on! They'll leave soon!"
The Shadowseer could only laugh again, and the Farseer thought back to what had led him to his current perilous predicament...
After a reconnaissance mission in seeking the legendary vessel of Fate's Sundering on Kolch, the Farseer had been gifted information concerning the whereabouts of his lost wife Zerine from the elders of Quilan. His son Illryli had died, and in his heart, Evoray had known that informing his wayward Harlequin wife of his death was the just course of action. When he tried to scry the future, however, the threads of fate twisted like tangled spider webs knotted in an autumn gale before his formidable abilities. Fate, after an encounter with Fate's Sundering, seemed to be behaving strangely. Advised to visit the Mon-keigh world of Tar Vigaz by Quilan's elders, Evoray had been shocked to discover that not only was his missing wife present on that world, but Fate's Sundering was also visiting at the same time! It was an astonishing coincidence.
After a chilling encounter with an enigmatic Harlequin Solitaire in his hotel lounge, Evoray was directed to the governor's palace, and had even been given a ticket to the masquerade ball. He had been told that his Zerine would be there, and that fate was sending him on a wild chase. Cobbling together a costume of dark robes and a pale mask from a local costume shop who would sell to his kind, Evoray made his way to the governor's palace. There, the Farseer coincidentally encountered the female Mon-Keigh pilot of the Fate's Sundering, who appeared to confirm many of the legends concerning the grand nigh-mythical vessel. Evoray had taken extensive mental notes concerning this meeting, and he would deliver whatever knowledge he could back to the Keeper of Lost Ledgers back on Quilan. This information would benefit all Aeldari, and it was of utmost importance that he report back to his people as soon as possible.
In his embarrassment, the Farseer found himself somewhat psychically overwhelmed in the direct presence the Mon-keigh captain of Fate's Sundering. Despite his awestruck impression, her prosaic nature caused the Farseer deep visceral upset colored with jealousy. She was unrefined, a common example of most Mon-keigh, but her aura and power was distinctively gold, and whenever she looked upon him, Evoray felt as if she could see through his soul, despite his vast psychic defenses. However, even though she appeared to be of a crude nature, the young shining woman from another universe had gifted him lost ranger's Spirit Stone. It had been gifted to Evoray freely in a gesture of good will. The Farseer quickly made a plan to discern the deceased ranger's identity before returning the lost soul to whatever Craftworld she had come from, but he first needed to find Zerine! It was absolutely imperative for him to inform his wife that their son was dead.
At the governor's masquerade party, Evoray witnessed the Harlequins (which were aligned with the Masque of the Veiled Path) perform a mysterious dance to an unappreciative human audience. As soon as the show reached its conclusion, the troupe fled the palace as if in a terrible hurry. It was here that Evoray had seen his wife for the first time in many years. The Farseer had discovered that Zerine had become a Shadowseer to serve the whims of the Laughing God, and it made him sad that she had been reduced to performing for an audience of Mon-keigh. They may have well been performing to a herd of farm animals knowing just how cultured those grunting primitives were. Evoray had tried to catch the troupe as they departed, but the entire troupe had raced away from the palace with such speed that the Farseer remembered feeling a sense of foreboding.
His attempts to scry probable futures continued to fail before his sight, and Evoray quickly decided to pursue the Harlequins regardless of any unknown looming danger. He needed to catch up with them! He needed to speak to his wife!
The troupe effortlessly bounded down roads, parks, and through eerily quiet streets. The Farseer had strained to keep up, his muscles not acclimated to this extreme activity. Evoray's black robe was occasionally cumbersome in this run, and he discarded his white mask. By this point, Evoray had become wholly fixated on his goal, and he would not allow Zerine to vanish again without speaking his peace and informing her of little Illryli's death!
Despite this desperate chase, the Farseer had been forced to admit that this run was somewhat thrilling. When he had lived on Craftworld Alaitoc many years ago, he had remembered enjoying the occasional adventures offworld. He took pleasure in his time meeting with foreign emissaries, scouting regions for pirates, and even attending festivals on the occasional Exodite world. On those rare sojourns, he had never encountered the need for extreme acrobatics, and now, he found himself invigorated by his present chase. When the Harlequins and the pursuing Farseer were nearly at the city center, the Solitaire that trailed the group like a dark rumor turned his horned masked head around to observe Evoray with a wicked grin, apparently having complete knowledge that the Farseer had been following them.
A shadow had then passed over Evoray's soul, and he heard the tinkling of bells. Time skipped, and the Harlequins had vanished! The Farseer awoke suddenly in the middle of a dirty street in a bad neighborhood as he was pelted with garbage from the local unwashed Mon-keigh vagrants. His head was blazing with pain, and when he went to draw upon the power of the Warp to discern where the Harlequins had fled, he discovered that the song of the Immaterium had grown dim! Something was muffling the Warp!
Despite the agonizing existential pain that had ravaged the Farseer's mind and body, Evoray was determined to continue his desperate pursuit of his wife, pulling frantically on what little energy he could draw into himself, nearly snapping a rune in half between his fingers. The local Mon-keigh continued to hurl ignorance and more projectiles his way, and after being chased down decrepit streets by savages for a time, an insubstantial grinning white mask caught the Farseer's attention in a dark alley. It wasn't the mask of the Solitaire he had seen, as it did not have horns. When he looked to study it further, however, it had vanished. Something in the Farseer knew that he should follow that mask, and he raced toward where he had seen it.
The threads of fate before him still felt both indecipherable and unnaturally bent as he frantically followed his visions. Strangely, the odd apparition resembled the discarded white mask he had worn to the governor's party a short time ago, and in a way, it almost felt as if he was following a manifestation of himself. This specter even persisted when the Warp remained muffled. Evoray didn't stop to think about the logic behind what he was seeing and his behavior; he needed to find Zerine! The Farseer raced down alleys and vaulted expertly over roofs, his dancelike steps becoming more refined and deft as he pursued his visions. The Farseer had always been somewhat envious of the incredible agility of the Harlequins in their dance, he thought idly as he leapt over a Mon-keigh sleeping in a gutter.
And still, the ghostly white mask led him onward, as did his obsession. Vaguely, Evoray was now aware that something dark was pursuing him as he engaged in his chase, but his single-mindedness allowed him to ignore that. Once he found Zerine, he would complete his quest, and he could go home, he promised himself.
The Warp waxed and waned with strange and upsetting irregularity, and the Farseer soon found himself in a wealthier neighborhood with tall buildings and more security, which he was now able to easily evade. Evoray peered cautiously out of an alley, wreathing himself in shadow in an attempt to hide himself from any prying eyes. The white mask hung ahead in the town square, and this time, another voice seemed to speak a warning to him, seemingly just beyond his perceptible range of hearing. "Wait, watch, and see," a song of tinkling bells and laughter spoke to him. Behind him, his pursuer gained ground, but he knew somehow to trust in the voice that sang in his heart.
Evoray watched in his hiding place as the Mon-keigh pilot of Fate's Sundering appeared with two companions, one of which was a beaked mutant with one broken horn. She was wearing a red cloth about her face, and it seemed that she also hiding from something, as she crouched behind a hedge in a central area of greenspace in a modest city park. Was she being chased by the same unrecognizable darkness as he was? Above, Evoray's attention was brought to the Harlequin Solitaire he had seen earlier. The damned creature stood nearly invisibly against the façade of a building that faced the opposite side of the square he hid within. The Solitaire, as before, was aware that the Farseer had seen him, and placed a finger before his masked face in a gesture of quiet as he was perceived from below. The dark horned figure then pointed forward toward something deeper in the city square.
Peering out from the alley, Evoray noticed very large display screen a few stories in height fixed against the largest skyscraper in the square. Before the display, a large mass of frightened Mon-keigh stood watching another of their kind offer news on their world's current troubles. In shock, the Farseer listened. In his obsessive pursuit, he had apparently missed that this world had suffered some kind of attack, and that confusion had struck the city of Evna!
"Quite a shock, isn't it, friend? Funny seeing one of your kind here in my little hiding place," a dark cruel voice spoke behind him, nearly causing the Farseer to shout in fright! Was this his dark pursuer? Before he could say anything, the individual appeared beside him, and despite his concealing black helmet, Evoray somehow knew that he had met this man before.
This was the Drukhari he had met at the hotel yesterday!
"Do pay us no mind, lost little Farseer. We're not here for you," the wicked man purred, his honeyed voice dripping with malice. In his right hand, he held a strange hooked pistol that Evoray didn't recognize. "We're here to poach ourselves the quarry that the Harlequins wish to wastefully kill. As long as we know that you're not here to interfere with us, we're considering graciously looking the other way for you in whatever you're doing here. Does this sound like a good arrangement, lost singular Farseer, so far from home?"
The Drukhari shifted his hand, and a click was heard in his jagged weapon. The Farseer was being intimidated. Evoray couldn't even sense where the others of his raiding party happened to be, or if this individual was alone. His senses felt dampened and strange despite the Warp not being presently muffled.
"If you do not hunt the Harlequins, you are not my enemy," the Farseer whispered, continuing to watch the square.
The Drukhari laughed quietly. "We hunt one particular male Mon-keigh, so then it is settled." The wicked individual even offered Evoray a friendly pat on his shoulder, but still did not put away his weapon. He then turned to observe the square again, and the Farseer could tell that the Drukhari was now observing the mass of frightened Mon-keigh that milled about ahead of the large display, their souls shimmering with anxiety. "Mmm, but I suppose if opportunity presents itself, we could pick up a few extras. They're all just so deliciously pre-seasoned with fear."
Before the Farseer could respond to the Drukhari, a familiar feminine voice then entered Evoray's mind as he watched and waited. It was a voice that he had heard over many years of love and laughter back on Craftworld Alaitoc before his relocation to Quilan, and it nearly caused him weep to feel it move through his soul once again.
We see you, my beloved husband! Welcome! Will you join in our dance this evening?
Zerine! Evoray transmitted back to the Shadowseer as he became overwhelmed with emotion, even bursting into tears. Zerine! Where are you? Please! I need to speak to you, and there are Drukhari here! A covert raid! Can you-
Evoray turned, and discovered that the man in the jagged black suit of armor had vanished!
Oh, we know! But they don't know that we know, you know! We're going to Commoragh afterward anyway, so maybe we'll say hello before we leave! Anyway, the local Mon-keigh just threatened their new God-Empress over their media, so talk to you later, my silly lost love!
"What?" Evoray whispered audibly, and there, on the screen, he saw an older Mon-keigh man with short grey hair and harsh eyes addressing their new god-form in a threatening manner. Why would they do such a thing? If Fate's Sundering had chosen an Aeldari pilot this time around, such an individual would be universally protected and exalted. Stupid Mon-keigh, the Farseer swore to himself.
Zerine? the Farseer called out through the Warp, searching for his lost beloved, but heard nothing. Zerine, please don't leave me again! Please! I can't be alone!
Only silence responded to him, and now he felt the threads of fate grow even more tangled before him, clouding his future.
And behind him, he sensed his pursuer grow closer...
A patrol of Mon-keigh military police began to slowly approach his location, and Evoray began to feel the presence of a Blank amongst their number, which caused the Farseer's soul to seethe in revulsion. Evoray reluctantly slunk further back into the alley, avoiding their eyes and enacting an enchantment to allow himself to meld into the shadows again. He would do whatever he could to speak to Zerine directly, no matter the obstacles that barred him!
"How touching the dance of love upon the stage of the heart," the voice of laughter and bells sang sweetly to him once again. Was he growing mad? The Farseer gulped, now finally realizing something important. Perhaps his obsession with his wife was now beginning to have a corruptive affect on his soul? He took a deep breath to calm himself. Evoray vowed that he would spend a full year in meditation when he returned to Quilan to absolve himself from this experience, but for now, he needed to find his wife!
Only moments afterward, the world went mad as the young god-form attempted to make her escape from her ignorant race. They wanted to kill her! They would destroy their own savior in favor of their own foolish ignorance! The ungratefulness of these unevolved beasts disgusted Evoray, and he was once again reminded of the Aeldari's evolutionary superiority as he stood hiding in the alley, watching the chaos and searching for any sign of Zerine. At the very least, the young demigod solved the problem with the icy presence of the Blanks by simply telekinetically shattering the innumerable glass windows of the skyscraper and hurling the shards into the military police before racing away down a street. The Mon-keigh charged the demigod, but then, Evoray beheld a watery bright shadow vaulting merrily through the square. The shadow proceeded to cut down the ignorant throngs who attempted to assail the demigod with a thin deft blade. The Farseer somehow recognized the shadow! It was Zerine! She was helping the demigod woman flee from here!
As soon as he had discovered his wife's presence, more trouble presented itself. Around him, the Farseer felt the Warp buckle and strain as a handful of unsuspecting Mon-keigh were used as sacrificial energy conduits, and their bodies fell drained to the street before a handful of wicked clawed servants of She-Who-Thirsts materialized into existence! There were Chaos sorcerers in the crowd!
Evoray had finally seen enough, and he summoned the blue electric fire of the Warp about him in a cackling halo and obliterating an advancing unnatural Immaterial creature to ashes before it could kill an injured woman on the street. Primitive or not, no one deserved to be consumed by such foul creatures!
As the Farseer conjured his power again, Zerine abruptly appeared beside him, her slender blade black with daemonic ichor. "Hello there, handsome! Come here often?" she casually called out from behind her mirrored face shield.
"Zerine! I-" Evoray called out before being interrupted by a gout of pink fire that had been summoned by a woman in red, white, and blue robes. The Farseer conjured a wall of force to protect his wife. "Please! I-"
"Talk is cheap! Shut up and dance!" his lost wife laughed before leaping into the air again to cut a sorceress down with a swift stab of her blade. "Would you join in our dance?"
"Yes, dance with us! Save yourself!" another masked Harlequin appeared beside him with a cheerful laugh that turned dark at its conclusion. "Save yourself from hell!"
And so, Evoray danced with the Harlequins for a short time in the square, cutting down summoned daemons and burning the sorcerers that had presented themselves. By now, his muscles had been warmed by his earlier pursuit, and he found himself actually enjoying his vigorous acrobatic activity. The Farseer caught glimpses of the strange white mask from time to time as it smiled at him, and his soul registered an existential chill as once again, he felt the foreboding sensation that he was still being hunted by something with a dark hunger.
Of course, he would reconcile all of this later, Evoray once again made excuses to himself.
After a short bout of acrobatics and more summoned bolts of electricity, Evoray's head once again exploded into pain as all summoned daemons were shunted out of realspace by the muffling of the Warp. Zerine faltered, but she was able to steady the Farseer as he stumbled. He could tell that behind her face shield she was smiling. Brief prayers were spoken to Cegorach for a fallen dancer, and Evoray now noticed that the Solitaire was no longer present, and that he was no longer seeing the strange ghostly white mask.
But the darkness behind him still waited in the shadows. It was so hungry.
The Harlequin troupe then immediately retreated, and advanced toward another unknown destination in the city by hopping over rooftops and alleys. This time, Evoray was permitted to follow amongst them. After a short while, three new dancers joined their bounding run, and their masked faces all wore expressions of exaggerated (and somewhat comical) frustration. The Farseer was able to overhear that their assassination target had been stolen out from under them by a shadowy band of Drukhari raiders in the city. Strangely, the troupe didn't seem to take the news of this development with much chagrin. Shoulders were shrugged as the Troupe Master, a man wearing a cheerful white mask, a tall green mohawk, and ostentatious green and yellow bodysuit, informed the dancers that they would "see the pitiful wretch in Commoragh instead".
The Farseer took this opportunity to run beside Zerine. His questions to his wife were filled with grave concern. Why did her troupe even bother to aid these Mon-keigh, Evoray had asked. And why had she abandoned her family on Quilan so readily? Surely she could have at least said goodbye! Frustrated, Evoray then finally informed his wife that their son Illryli had died of psychic whiplash at the moment of the formation of the Great Rift. The Farseer was disturbed to hear that not only was she not surprised by her son's death, but it appeared that she didn't even care!
To make matters worse, the Warp then surged back into existence, causing Evoray's nose to bleed in spiritual shock. Shortly afterward, they were once again spotted by another red, white, and blue Mon-keigh sorcerer of Chaos who proceeded to summon a handful of pink flying Chaos Furies into the sky to assail them.
Zerine then answered Evoray's concerned objections with a laugh as lighthearted as his young daughter's. "You still don't see, don't you?" she sang as she vaulted into the air to artfully decapitate a screaming pink Chaos Fury with her long blade before landing in a perfect dismount. "All of life is a joke! All is a dance! We exist as a dream! No free will, only steps in a scripted dance! Be joyful that you're a part of a new prologue to a brand new performance, my lost myopic wayward Evoray!"
"Where are we going?" Evoray asked, leaping through the window of an abandoned building to evade more flying daemons which were then cut down by swift acrobatic dancers. The Troupe Master himself, it seemed, had taken it upon himself to personally dispatch the lone witch that continued to harry them. He informed Zerine that she was now tasked to lead the troupe on their way as he was temporarily left behind.
"To the next act, brothers and sisters!" Zerine shouted both to the Farseer and to the rest of the troupe as they exited the building through another open window to bound over another roof.
"But, what's that? Do you mean Commoragh?"
"You still don't understand, do you?" Zerine laughed once again. "A myopic Farseer! Hah!"
While it appeared that no more sorcerers and daemons chased them, a group of monstrous quadrupedal Mon-keigh servitor-creatures with wheels for hands and feet were now pursuing the troupe along an elevated rail that ran parallel to the street below. The squeals of their wheels against the metal rail were grating on Evoray's ears, and their mad laughter chilled his heart. What sort of abominations had this world's Mon-keigh created, he wondered in disgust. These particular creatures didn't even seem to have heads as large boxy glowing displays were mounted directly upon their necks. A laser blast nearly struck one grinning dancer, and she taunted the servitor-abomination with a mocking laugh.
Dawn was coming, the Farseer could now sense as he ran. The Troupe Master reappeared, now covered in gore and as optimistic as ever, his yellow-green motley now mostly stained red. Around his neck, Evoray noticed that the grinning masked Harlequin wore a bloody ear as a trophy on a cord. Dancers rushed to greet and cheer his apparent victory, and soon, the Troupe Master was leading the group ahead over rooftops once again. The deep cerulean hue of predawn now colored the sky over Evna in a blue radiance. After briefly stopping to dispatch a handful of mad wheel-limbed creatures (which were creatively called "Wheelers", as he had overheard from another dancer), the Farseer's significant psychic senses directed his eyes skyward. "Look!" he shouted to the troupe before they could continue their bounding run. Evoray pointed to the sky in the direction that they had come. Surprisingly, the dancers paused, and looked to the sky to where Evoray had indicated.
Fate's Sundering soared majestically into view over the beleaguered city of Evna, its brilliantly reflective gold hull shining in the first light of the morning! It was screaming, and its voice reminded the Farseer of a roaring dragon as it flew in a circle about the skyscrapers of the downtown core. The entire Harlequin troupe pointed and gestured in excitement at the scene. Their happy exhilaration then became more pitched as what appeared to be a high-powered laser cannon struck the building that Evoray had hidden near earlier, causing a massive fireball to explode from the structure's midpoint. This was the very same skyscraper that had displayed the public media threat for the capture of the demigod captain of Fate's Sundering, and so, seeing this skyscraper rupture in fire was darkly satisfying. "That's what you get for allying against Fate's Sundering, fool Mon-keigh!" Evoray laughed nastily. The skyscraper then collapsed a moment later, and in the Warp, Evoray could feel the terror and pain from innumerable beings as they were consumed by the conflagration. On the roof they stood upon, the Harlequins cheered and clapped at seeing this demonstration of power as if they were watching a particularly delightful stage show.
The Farseer, now wholly convinced of Fate's Sundering's majesty, decided to send the captain a telepathic message of esteem. If she truly was the new future God-Empress of the Mon-keigh, then perhaps she would remember kindnesses such as these along her road, which may ultimately aid Evoray's people in the future. The Farseer closed his eyes and concentrated sending his message into the mind of the gold woman he had met at the party. Praise you, Fate's Sundering! Deliver your divine retribution against Chaos! I will tell my people of you! Flee this world before it is too late!
"Oh, it's ever so splendid!" a dancer said with a whooping cheer as he watched the plume of flaming smoke rise from the wreckage of the skyscraper. "Little Sister is growing up!"
"We shall pen a new and glorious dance for the coming age! May the new Mon-keigh godling prosper and war against Chaos!" a female dancer with a spiky black mohawk and a smiling white mask cheered. "Hope comes to the galaxy again!"
"Praise the Little Sister!" the Harlequins shouted happily, their souls radiating with overwhelming joy. Even Evoray found himself caught up in the excitement, and also began to cheer. Fate's Sundering banked low, and turned about as it departed Evna for an unknown destination.
"It's so wonderful," Zerine cooed as she appeared near Evoray, swinging her slender arm around his shoulders in an affectionate manner, and raising her face shield to display her beautiful fair features. "To be a part of history! To dance the eternal dance of time! This dance is the finest of my life, my myopic husband!"
"With you, all life is sweeter, beloved," the Farseer found himself saying to his wife. He had missed her so much! "I'm so glad you-"
Evoray found his flattery interrupted by Zerine's lips kissing him deeply, and his weary heart sang with joy and love!
"Darling, I-"
"No time to talk! Shut up and dance!" Zerine smiled mischievously as she replaced her face shield once again. "Destiny awaits, wayward husband!" And, without further ado, they were on their way again, and Evoray could only desperately follow.
Their destination was apparently somewhat close, and the gathered group of Harlequins began to slow their leaping run only a short time later. "The gate is near, sister!" Evoray overheard one male dancer sing to Zerine. "We will need to be ready!"
"Troupe Master Abremel has the Key!" she chirped happily.
"I do, I do!" the voice of the Troupe Master called out in a sing-song response at the head of the pack.
"Zerine!" the Farseer cried out as the troupe bounded down off the side of a building to land on the ground below onto a cobblestone street. The Shadowseer did not answer. They were now in what appeared to be a historic area of the city of Evna, and as they were spotted, more laughing Wheeler abominations approached to pursue the Harlequins on both elevated rails and on street level. At their passage, many of the local residents closed and bolted shut their doors and windows. Evoray psychically perceived that the local population had been convinced by media broadcasts that "terrorists" or "aliens" were assailing their city, and that was what the Mon-keigh thought that the Harlequins were. At the very least, this mostly hid them from the maddened wheel-limbed Wheeler monsters who assailed them with poorly-aimed laser blasts.
There is a hidden Webway Gate near to here and we are going to it. Do you plan to join us, oh lost Farseer? Will you finally begin your true part in the grand dance? Or have you been cast in a more... solitary role? Zerine asked the Farseer in mind.
"No! You need to stop this, Zerine! You need to come home!" Evoray protested desperately. He had just found his wife, and he was not going to lose her again!
"But, I am home!"
After a lucky Wheeler laser struck one young woman dead, two Aeldari dancers had now fallen in this mad bounding race through Evna, but each Harlequin dancer continued to laugh and sing as they danced ahead, not even outwardly concerned about any danger. This changed, however, when the group abruptly paused and quieted in the street. Evoray became worried, and looked ahead.
A little barefoot Mon-keigh girl wearing a shift of rags stood before them in the middle of the narrow street under a flickering street light. At only five years old or so, it was unusual that she was out alone like this in these early hours, and his intuition informed the Farseer that there was a dreadful miasma of evil near the troupe. The Harlequins all stood still before the little girl, and he could tell that their carefree demeanor had cooled. The child blinked overlarge violet eyes at the group under the guttering street light. Since no one spoke, and the group simply seemed to be nervously staring at the girl, Evoray summoned his keen psychic abilities to sense the atmosphere of this unsettling situation.
Alarms blared inside his mind when he registered that the little girl, as expected, was no mere child. The light above her flickered out with a crack.
"Care to dance with me, handmaidens?" the Keeper of Secrets known as Ephalba'Klyss-Esk the Curse in Violet spoke through the body of the little girl, blood pooling from her eyes as they began to glow. The cursed purple eyes of the creature inhabiting the girl then turned toward the Farseer, and immediately, Evoray somehow knew that the dark pursuing force was very close to finally catching up to him!
But, none of that mattered! Evoray needed his wife, and he vowed to protect her from this beast!
The possessed girl held strength beyond that of normal Mon-keigh, and was able to dispatch another Harlequin dancer in a whirling fit of claws and bruise-purple fire. Violet lightning arced through the street, even striking an unfortunate Mon-keigh who had curiously opened his bedroom window to see what all the noise was about. All the while, another pursuing gang of servitor-creatures gained ground upon them. It appeared that the Harlequins were in great trouble, as they were trapped between a powerful daemon and the new Wheeler abominations that chased them!
Now suddenly finding themselves outmatched, a new and unexpected development presented itself. Evoray was shocked to telepathically hear Zerine and another dancer offer themselves as a distraction in order to bait the possessed girl-thing away from the Harlequins to allow her fellow troupe members an escape. As the Shadowseer and the other dancer valiantly fought two laughing Wheelers and the claws of the possessed girl, the other dancers of the Harlequin troupe shortly bowed in respect, and accepted Zerine's proposal. The second dancer who had accepted the proposition raced forward to taunt the daemon, and to draw her attention away from the rest of the troupe.
No! No, no, no!
As the Shadowseer decapitated a keening Wheeler that had sped ahead of them, Zerine telepathically offered Evoray an out, and suggested that he should escape to save himself and go back to their surviving daughter on Quilan. Over the daemonic growls and mad laughter of the chaotic confrontation, she explained that the window for safe departure was rapidly closing on this world, and that Evoray should leave to save himself. The Farseer refused to abandon his maddened wife, and summoned great bolts of energy in his frustrated anger to strike at the girl-thing that was currently fixated on the other distracting dancer. The Farseer helplessly watched as the the rest of the Harlequin troupe faded into the shadows once again to slink into an alley, leaving them behind!
"How touching!" the mysterious voice of bells and laughter called out to Evoray once again. "How inspiring! A dance to be remembered! Even as you are hunted, your love still dominates!"
Bringing himself back to the present, the Farseer watched in shock as the other dancer was swiftly disemboweled by the girl-thing after she had landed a strike from her dagger. The unfortunate dancer had been nearly laterally split in two by a tiny striking hand surrounded by violet fire. After this action, the bloody daemon-girl laughed and grew tall, and the wretched sound of rending flesh echoed loudly in the street. The daemon was now approximately twice Evoray's height. Long scything crab claws emerged from her shoulders, and the little girl's face cracked and splintered until it resembled a leering fanged bovine wearing the skin of a little girl like a mask! Multiple rows of breasts grew on the girl's torso, and her small hands grew long black claws that raked at her own skin in moaning masochistic enjoyment, tearing off her rags to revel in her nudity. Deep within the creature's possession, the Farseer could sense the cries of the spiritually imprisoned child as she screamed in horror and agony at what was happening to her, completely helpless within her mutating body.
The creature then paused for a brief moment as it loomed over the dead dancer like a snorting bull waiting to charge. The daemon then spoke three words to Evoray before abruptly rushing Zerine! "I see you!" the fiend screamed at him before striking at the Farseer's wife, who fortunately bounded away with a girlish giggle.
And behind him, Evoray sensed that the darkness was very close, and that it was hungry for his soul!
Refusing to flee from this terrible danger, Evoray decided to remain with his beloved Zerine, and the husband and wife valiantly fought the daemon in an elaborate dance of magic and swordplay. Even the monstrous Wheeler servitors that attempted to assault the mighty duo from behind were destroyed in a dancing flurry of electricity and a swift striking sword. The Farseer, not being as agile as the Shadowseer, suffered an unfortunate blow to the chest as a large black crab claw slammed into him with a mighty backhanded strike, causing his spirit stone to shatter under his robe! He paid it no mind, and decided that he would just have to not die on this world, Evoray said to himself in bull-headed resolution. He would defeat this creature with his wife, and they would return to Quilan as legends and be a family again, which was all that he ever wanted!
The Keeper of Secrets fought wildly, and it seemed to be focused on Zerine and her thin blade as she repeatedly cut the daemon. Evoray and his wife even telepathically joked and laughed as they began to wear creature down, watching as it bellowed in frustration at not being able to destroy two singular Aeldari. The other dancer, they had discovered, had blessedly weakened it with the strike from her dagger, which Zerine explained had been poisoned. Sadly, their good fortune was temporary.
In a tumbling leap off the side of a brick building, Zerine lunged through the air toward the weakening Keeper's heart, her blade extended. Evoray worked to distract the beast with a blast of blinding ball lightning. Zerine's aim had been true, but before the Shadowseer could impale the daemon through its chest, it had turned its shoulders, and drew back one of its shoulder crab claw limbs. It all happened so fast! As Zerine's sword pierced the beast's corrupted heart, the daemon managed to surge forward to impale the Shadowseer's torso with a jagged scything crab claw! The Shadowseer didn't even scream as the staggering daemon then hurled her to the street like a piece of discarded refuse!
"No! No, I just found her!" Evoray screamed! "No!"
The daemon collapsed to the street laughing in dark satisfaction as the Farseer wailed his anguish. "Your new mistress awaits! No spirit stone to save you now, damned one!" it moaned obscenely in a gurgling voice, its flesh flowing off its stolen skeleton like melting black candle wax.
The Farseer frantically raced to where his wife had been thrown, which was close to a dingy alley. Evoray stood stunned over his stricken wife, completely unable to move or react, his mental training and discipline failing him all at once as the dying daemon mocked him with its last gasps. A Mon-keigh shout of "Call the Wheelers!" could be heard somewhere nearby, and the Farseer's ears began to ring.
"But... but I... I just found her," Evoray choked, frozen in horror. In his dumbfounded shock, the Farseer was not able to see just how exposed he was until a hail of explosive hollow-point projectiles struck him in the leg, causing him to stumble to the street! One of the Wheelers was still operational, despite its display screen head lacking power and missing a leg!
Quickly, the enraged Farseer struggled to his feet. Utterly consumed with fury, Evoray turned, and summoned the power of the Warp once again. He hurled a bolt of lightning against the crippled servitor abomination that lay in the street, causing it to break apart in a shower of metal and gore. Such was the power of his anger that the bolt arced, and struck each stricken Wheeler that lay near, living or dead. The smell of burnt electronics and cooking meat filled the air.
Evoray did his best in his own grievous condition to painfully drag his injured wife into the nearby dead end alleyway, and began to do what he could to staunch the bleeding from the terrible large wound in her chest. He ignored his own injuries to attend to Zerine's, and tore strips of fabric from his robe to bind her wounds. At the very least, the greater daemon had been banished, but to make matters even more comically worse than they already were, yet another gang of laughing Wheelers were on their way, and were now speeding down the cobblestones, firing their lasers madly at anything that moved, which included the Mon-keigh that had apparently summoned them.
How... how could fate have been twisted so before him, Evoray thought, crying in silent pain and frustration. He had not perceived any of these troubles when he had calculated his futures back on Quilan! He had only traveled here to find his wife, and nothing else!
And now his wife would die at his feet if he could not save her!
Evoray tore pieces of his bloody robe to staunch his own bleeding leg wound in the alley, his hands shaking with overwhelming grief. Pieces of his shattered soul stone cut his shaking fingers as he finally tended to his many injuries, which included a crush wound to his chest, a few broken ribs, and a horrendous wound to his upper thigh. Unfortunately, his leg wound was bleeding heavily, as it appeared an artery had been nicked. He would escape this! He would wait until the Wheelers had lost interest in this neighborhood and he would flee to the Webway Gate!
All at once, the Farseer then finally began to understand many things, and the depth of this revelation caused him to tremble as he desperately tried to save both himself and his wife.
Fate itself was becoming twisted from the passage of Fate's Sundering!
The great eagle of Fate's Sundering was named as such by their ancestors for a good reason. Fate is rewritten and sundered by its passing due to the unique nature of the vessel, and since he had encountered it before, Evoray reasoned that it was now directly (and violently) tangling and reordering the threads of fate about him! And, not just him, but the entire region that the eagle passed through! The Farseer's thoughts began to race in this revelation. The Emperor of Mankind, by his very nature as the former integrated captain of Fate's Sundering bent and changed the destiny of his species not only through war, but by his simple existence, causing the ascendancy of Mon-keigh through the galaxy!
And now, Fate's Sundering was flying once again, a great gold transformative comet of fate and change! Perhaps due to the current captain's youthful and erratic nature, she was ignorant of the damage to fate she was causing, and she did not yet hold the extreme mental discipline the Emperor of Mankind possessed in order to temper herself? Evoray definitely had to survive now so that he could share this information with his people. This was essential! He had to survive somehow! And without his spirit stone, if he died here, She-Who-Thirsts would consume him, and all this vital information would be lost!
The Farseer was now entirely overwhelmed, and finding himself unable to modulate his storm of emotions, he mutely wept over his weakening (but still cheerful) wife, watching with wild eyes as she continued to bleed heavily into her makeshift bandages. The newly arrived laughing Wheelers raced down the street beside the alley. The abominations continued to randomly fire lasers at curious innocent Mon-keigh that opened their windows, making any escape currently impossible. Some Wheelers were now even breaking down doors, and murdering families as they cowered in their homes! Since Evoray and Zerine were both seriously injured, they could only wait for the Wheelers to lose interest in killing the local Mon-keigh before fleeing.
His beautiful wife that he had fought so hard to be close to now lay cradled in the Farseer's arms, her eyes glittering at him in pained happiness behind her broken face shield. Evoray removed her face shield and hood, revealing her full mane of thick blonde hair the color of Quilan's summer sun. She was still so beautiful, and she smiled at him with laughing green eyes. "Weep not for me not my wayward myopic Farseer husband, for I go to an even greater performance! I feel Cegorach calling to me. He wishes to see my steps in a new beautiful dance!"
"Please, Zerine. Just try to stay calm!" Evoray, pleaded beside his grievously injured wife in a pinched whisper. This was an utter waste! This didn't need to happen! The local Mon-keigh outside continued to scream as the malfunctioning Wheelers happily slaughtered them. "They're going to leave! I promise! They'll move on!"
Zerine smiled, and her eyes became distant. "I'm so happy you and he are both here, my beloved. I couldn't ask for a better denouement!"
"Stop talking like that! I said I'm going to save you!" Evoray barked angrily, but even he could not ignore that he was growing weaker by the moment as his own bandages soaked through. The atmosphere of noise and anguish was absolutely hellish, and the light of the dawn now made it somehow even more surreal.
"Ah, but how can you save one who has already been saved?" a very cold voice spoke from above. Evoray's blood immediately became ice in his veins as he recoiled. Above the alley and perched on the roof like a grotesque grinning statue, a dark figure in black robes wearing a white mask spoke to him. The stranger then began to quietly clap. "This one sees a tender scene! A beautiful conclusion to a love story! This one is so very moved!" The creature laughed, and the world became darker. Was this the dark thing that had been pursing him? He seemed... somewhat familiar. The stranger easily leapt down into the alley to stand before Evoray and Zerine. This was not the Solitaire he had seen earlier, but his shadowed masked features felt achingly recognizable, as if he knew this person. The Farseer's head began to nod, his blood loss beginning to draw him into delirium. The stranger did not deign to help them, and simply grinned at the injured duo. "One dance ends, but this one hears whispers that another begins, and the dance begins anew!"
The Farseer's vision was beginning to blur around the edges, and a persistent chill began to envelop him like a lover's embrace. Zerine reached up to lightly caress Evoray's face with a weak hand, and weakly pulled herself upward in his arms to kiss her husband with trembling cold lips. Completely emotionally overwhelmed, the Farseer wept, and he watched as his wife suddenly turned her head to make eye contact with the stranger above them. She gasped in what appeared to be sudden recognition, and a broad smile split her features. "Oh! Oh, he's here! I... I can see him!" she breathed in an awestruck voice. "He's so beautiful!"
"Zerine?" Evoray whispered as he gently shook Zerine. "Zerine, no. Don't go. I need you. I love you. Don't-"
Her eyes then fixed into eternity, and her body relaxed. Evoray's beautiful wife wore an ecstatic smile upon her face as a gentle long breath exhaled like a happy sigh of utter contentment.
The Farseer's senses informed him that Zerine had died, and that her soul had fled from her body.
Evoray was inconsolable, and he began to rock his beloved wife's body as he held her. As his tears flowed, Evoray closed his eyes, his own injuries continuing to bleed. At least he would die beside his beloved, he thought sadly as despair flowed through his soul in a torrential rain. The world was growing dark and cold around him as his life's blood spilled onto the street. Perhaps his grief would be bitter on She-Who-Thirst's tongue?
After a short time, and finding himself to still be alive, the Farseer became aware that the dark stranger was still standing over him, and without opening his eyes, Evoray asked, "Who are you?" in a dry whisper. He was so very tired.
"Don't you know?" a hollow, and now somewhat familiar voice spoke to him. Evoray opened his dimming grey eyes again, and the dark figure crouched beside him. The stranger reached forward and closed Zerine's staring dead eyes in an almost tender gesture.
The mysterious figure then reached around, and removed his white mask.
It was... himself? The Farseer now stared at a doppelgänger of himself! But, it wasn't quite him, Evoray observed dizzily. This version of him held features were joyful, almost manic, and his smile had an alien, twisted quality. His eyes were of a pale red-rimmed violet, and in their depths he could almost sense both power and damnation. None of this made sense, as the figure still appeared entirely benevolent, and did not seem to be a Warp entity attempting to trick him in his final moments. Or, maybe it was, and Evoray was indeed losing his mind at the same time as he was losing his soul.
"What..." Evoray was hit with a fit of loud coughing, and he spat up a gout of hot red blood. Nearby, he sensed that the Wheelers had perceived him, and were now making their way to the alley. That didn't matter too much to him, though, and he weakly asked the doppelgänger, "What is the-"
"-meaning of this?" the figure finished his thoughts with a smile. "Simple. I serve the god who laughs in an eternal joyful dance, for he has called me to this performance. This is where I was born, and where my dance begins! You see, previous echo of myself, destiny is not strands of fate, but rather, a performance. We are merely its players in a grand and glorious show being played out over all of time, and all the multiverse! And now, it is your turn to take your first steps in your new life, Evoray."
"My steps?" the Farseer whispered as his vision greyed out, and a pervasive chill weighted his heavy limbs. He was so tired. Suddenly, his spirit felt as if it was floating outside of his body, and he was standing before the strange figure, who continued to smile at him with his own, but oddly-colored eyes. Evoray could feel the desire of She-Who-Thirsts as she was hungrily drawn to him. Without a spirit stone to save him, he began to drift away, his soul now forsaken.
Even as he fell away, Evoray's doppelgänger could still apparently see him. He reached out, and offered him a hand. There was something pained in the doppelgänger's eyes, as if he shouldered a great burden, and was trying to hide it. Evoray was reluctant to take the hand, even as he felt himself being consumed. Why persist in a universe as cruel as this one, he distantly thought. Pleasure and agony began to ring through his soul like a bell. Damnation was the eventual fate of all of his people, anyway. A spirit stone simply delayed the inevitable.
The doppelgänger continued to smile reassuringly, and he persistently reached for Evoray's fading form. "Come along now, foolish one who claimed to see far. Yes, you're damned, but maybe not? Your dance of love and devotion sang so sweetly, and I think you have potential. You may as well be taught the greatest cosmic joke!"
Evoray then felt a presence stopping him from being consumed by the great hunger that lay beyond the veil, and he stood staring at the hand offered before him dumbly. His soul gasped as She-Who-Thirsts fought for his essence!
The strange voice of bells and laughter called to the Farseer's spirit again, but this time, it shifted to something familiar and filled with love. A laughing beautiful voice free of care and suffering called to Evoray from beyond the veil! "You were always so stubborn, Evoray! Take the hand, my darling myopic shortsighted farseeing husband! Don't you see? He finds you worthy, and he has decided to take the gambit for you! Life is so beautiful with him, and I just learned a joke that you simply must hear! Spoiler alert, we're the punchline!"
He really could never really say no to Zerine, the Farseer thought with a tear and a weak smile.
Evoray found himself stepping forward and away from She-Who-Thirsts, and gripped the extended hand of his doppelgänger. Reality flickered, and from then onward, everything was different.
The figure that had offered Evoray his hand had vanished, and he found himself standing alone before a swirling portal that had appeared directly ahead of him on the alley wall. He was now wearing his mask again, and he felt strangely rejuvenated. His wounds no longer bothered him, and he felt strong and invigorated. Within the open gateway before, he could hear laughter. Endless, mad, and oddly pure laughter from countless Aeldari that had danced for Cegorach over millions of years. They reached for Evoray with welcoming hands.
Having nowhere else to go, and reassured by the sweet voice of Zerine, Evoray closed his eyes and opened his heart as he stepped through the portal. Many comforting arms and laughing voices drew him into an embrace that could only be a god's.
Hah, a myopic Farseer, he finally contemplated Zerine's jests as he began to finally laugh, his damned and saved soul filling with life and promise once again. That was actually pretty funny, he had to admit to himself, his laughter growing raucous in the brilliance of his rebirth.