It had taken a while, but Loki had accomplished his mission and was making his way back to Ahriman.

It was harder than before. For some reason, Loki had to walk through a hedge maze, and the maze seemed to keep shifting around as he went through it. Loki was very good at spatial puzzles so he could tell when someone was cheating. Of course, two could play that game and Loki grabbed the hedge, intending to climb on top of it to get a better look. When he did that, though, his hands felt slimy and there was active resistance as he tried to climb.

"Nuh uh. If you can cheat, I can cheat too," Loki muttered, catching his tongue between his teeth as he concentrated. The resistance yielded with a pained groan and Loki pulled himself onto the top of the hedge, gazing over the maze.

It was indeed constantly shifting and Loki huffed a sigh as he saw how unfair this puzzle was. Puzzles like this shouldn't be allowed… but when the game was rigged, you just didn't play by the rules so Loki began to dance across the hedge maze from on high. He leapt over spots and while it kept shifting, it could no longer keep him away.

Someone had anticipated that, though, and Loki had to avoid spikes abruptly thrusting out of the top of the hedges, trying to impale him. This was turning into an adventure dream so Loki put on the music, grinning as the theme of one of his favorite shows began to play. This was fun!

Not only did Loki have to avoid the spikes, he had to avoid arrows, designed to go after him when he was jumping between hedges. Loki was actually hurt a little, one of them tagging his arm and it stung pretty badly. But then it knitted together.

(back in Loki's room, if anyone had been observing his body, they would have seen a gash open on his arm before being quickly sealed by self-repair functions)

Loki made it, though, and landed neatly in the centre of the maze. There was a sizzling sound and then the maze melted away, revealing the castle, exactly as he remembered it. And he was actually in Ahriman's room but Ahriman wasn't there.

"…" Loki had a feeling that Ahriman would detect his entrance and come back, so he just went to the picture on the wall to examine it. Such a strange rune, it definitely wasn't anything he'd learned from his books and it was glowing with blue fire. Loki looked at it dubiously… he could tell, mostly through instinct, that it wasn't even half done. What was it even for?

Then two birds flitted in through the open window.

"Oh, hi Hugin, hi Munin, it's been a while. Where's Satan?" It was odd that he wasn't here.

"He couldn't get in, he's whining at the gates," Munin reported, glancing out the window. Loki grinned and went to look… sure enough, he could spot the iguana flitting around. "He can't fly up, he couldn't make it through the new wards." New wards…

"Oh, you mean the hedge maze? Yeah, that was kind of rough," Loki said, rubbing his arm. Then the door opened. "Hi Ahriman!" He was looking kind of tired to Loki. "Did something happen? Is that why you've got a hedge maze?"

"Wards," Munin translated. Ahriman pulled his brows together for a moment.

"Ah, the wards… yes, there was an incident. We're still investigating," he said and Loki frowned. Ahriman seemed so drained! He reached out a hand and not entirely understanding what he was doing, offered Ahriman a bit of his endless energy. Ahriman lifted an eyebrow but reached out to take it, accepting the gift. His tiredness seemed to ease a bit. "Thank you, I appreciate it."

"It's nothing. I found out about the biotransference though, I took notes," Loki said, pulling out his datapad. Although in honor of the setting, it had turned into a scroll. "Sorry it took me so long but it was so hard! The first time I went I ran into a crusty old bastard who told me to get lost," Loki said, making a face. "I got lucky the second time though, I found a really nice girl who was willing to tell me everything… it was funny though, when we were halfway done the crusty old bastard found us and started giving us what for. He demanded to know why I was there. I started with saying I was doing a school project but he said I wasn't in school, so I said I was doing a school project for my grandkids and he was like, you don't have grandkids and I was like, how did you know that?" The ravens were sniggering. "I mean really, I COULD have grandkids. I asked him if he thought I never had sex and he said stop dodging the question." Ahriman smiled a little. "Then the girl was like, 'this is my lunch break I can talk to him if I want' and he told her to shut up and finally I was like, 'I will tell you the real truth! I am here to help a Chaos Space Marine SAVE HIS FRIENDS!'. And then he finally said I'm a moron and told the girl to just get rid of me." Loki paused for a moment, thinking about it. "No one ever believes me when I tell them the truth. Is it a curse or a super power?"

"Could be both," a familiar voice rasped and the iguana came through the door.

"Hi Satan! Anyway, here's what I've got," Loki said before reading through his notes. Ahriman pulled out his own datapad, a real one, and started taking his own notes. When Loki was done detailing how biotransference worked, he got to the more interesting stuff. "I asked her about the necron Warriors that are completely insane… I asked what she thought might happen if you put a sentient soul into one and then didn't customize it. She said she didn't know, but that was kind of interesting and maybe Zivok would know. I asked who Zivok is and she said she's someone she knew back on Hope. She said he's a Cryptek in Mandragora now." Loki shook his head. "That means you can't reach him. Organics can't go to Mandragora, normally, and it's literally got blackstone forges." There was so much blackstone on Mandragora, being made and going to other places. "I asked if there's anyone else I could talk to and she said you can always talk to Manric when you get a chance." Loki paused for a moment. "Can you wait two years? I'll definitely be able to talk to Manric when I get transferred to the Cabbits."

"I can wait forever if necessary. But tell me about this Manric. Who is he?" Loki knew he had to be careful now. He couldn't give up any information that wasn't general knowledge. Fortunately, he didn't know too much that was classified, but he did know a few things.

"General Manric Duleth. He's serving under nemesor Zahndrekh, and he's an empathic telepath. You know what that is?" Manric's gifts were common knowledge. Ahriman nodded.

"I believed that was an aeldari only gift. Interesting." Loki knew that wasn't true but Ahriman was the enemy of the Imperium so it was best not to tell him. Instead.

"Manric has an a aeldari spear from the War in Heaven. It's definitely changed his mind, to make him more like an eldar," Loki said innocently, and everything he said was true but also a bit of misdirection. "He even fights like an aeldari which is really weird when he's a necron Overlord!" Loki had seen him fight in Mandragora against Imotekh and that had been AMAZING! Manric had been jumping all over the place while Imotekh just kind of looked at him and then struck at the right time. They were both amazing in totally different ways. "If you want to hunt him down yourself maybe you can, but I'm not sure how… I really can't help with that, I have no idea where he is or what he's doing." Loki also wouldn't tell Ahriman if he knew. That was completely out of bounds. "If you do try to talk to him yourself, though, you can't lie to him," Loki said warningly. "He caught a demon of Tzeentch lying to him and it was trying really, REALLY hard." Loki hadn't been present when that happened but he'd heard all about it later.

"Yes, I have heard it's virtually impossible to lie to soul healers. I've never met one, however. That should be interesting." Ahriman seemed thoughtful. Loki dared to ask a question.

"I was wondering… what is that rune for?" He gestured towards the wall. "I can't figure it out." If he had to guess, though, Loki thought it had something to do with transmogrification. He wasn't sure why he felt that, but he did.

"I don't know yet. I'm piecing it together, so I can add it to my store of knowledge," Ahriman said and Loki tilted his head, feeling a bit skeptical.

"You don't know? What if it's something useless, like a rune of big boobs?" Loki asked and Hugin shook his head as Munin flitted over and tried to peck him. "Hey, watch it!"

"You know it's not for that. What do you think it's for?" Munin asked and Loki looked at the rune again. What did HE think it's for?

"Well, it's definitely for transmogrification. So it COULD be a rune of big titties," Loki defended himself as he examined it. "I don't know though… I don't know… It is self-modification though. I'm sure of it." He could see the connotation of self change in it, even half done. Loki's eyes narrowed and he reached out without thinking, shifting part of the blue fire.

That caused blue fire to leap in the pattern and abruptly, a new piece of the rune seemed to form out of thin air. Loki blinked as he felt Ahriman suddenly behind him, a warmth against his back.

"How did you - ?!" he sounded angry but also confused and interested, as he looked over Loki's shoulder at the pattern on the wall. Loki wasn't sure what he'd done at all and cringed back, almost hitting Ahriman's chest.

"Uh, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I'm sorry," Loki said lamely although he didn't THINK he'd ruined anything. In fact, it just looked much closer to done, maybe three quarters. "I think this is a disguise spell of some kind, actually." It just felt that way to him. Maybe he was wrong, though.

"I think you should go," Ahriman said and Loki winced. Then the raven interrupted, though.

"He can't go just yet. Magnus wants to see him," Munin said and Ahriman frowned, stepping back. Loki blinked, looking at the raven.

"Who is Magnus?" he asked and Ahriman was the one who answered.

"He is the former Primarch of our Legion, currently the Daemon Primarch of Tzeentch," he said and Ahriman seemed really reserved. Loki had a feeling there was some bad feelings there. "If he wants to see you, you should probably get it over with." That didn't sound pleasant but Loki'd had a lot of meetings like that in his life.

Going to the meeting was really awesome, though. The ravens flew in front of him and Satan scuttled on the wall behind him, as they went further into the castle and up and up and up. Loki lost count of the stairs but when he tried to shorten them, he found he couldn't. That was a bit strange, but sometimes his dreams didn't fully answer to his will. Although normally when that happened, it meant his dream was getting dangerous…

Frowning to himself, Loki kept watch for any traps. He found a few but they were just pulsing gently, letting them pass. Was it because of the ravens? Probably.

When they reached the top of the tower, Loki was deeply impressed. It was absolutely gorgeous, with great openings that were just open to the air, not windows at all. Magic kept out the elements while giving a truly panoramic view of the land below. The rest of the walls were covered in great bookcases, reaching for the ceiling and filled with books and scrolls. The floor was a great symbol of an eye, surrounded by blue feathered wings, all inlaid beautifully and lined with gold. And in the midst of this splendor was Magnus.

He was bright red and had giant blue wings, which Loki thought were actually super pretty! His armor was kind of weird, particularly the horns on his chest. Loki mentally forced himself not to think of them as 'horn titties'. The style of what he was wearing wasn't Norse at all, but he was missing an eye and then the ravens flitted up to perch on his shoulders and Loki blinked.

"…Odin?" he muttered, deeply uncertain. Then Loki decided he probably wasn't. "Wow, you're big!" Loki said, deeply impressed. Magnus was HUGE! And he looked perfect for his size, which was a bit crazy… Loki was sure he would be incredibly scary in battle. He also had a staff, that was glowing with brilliant blue energy.

"I will take that as a compliment," Magnus said and Loki was also deeply impressed by his voice. He sounded just like a powerful wizard should, maybe he was Odin after all? "You are a little thing." …Ouch!

"Aw, jeez, that's not nice even if it's true," Loki said brightly, noticing that Magnus had his own familiar. It was much bigger than Satan, though, and had more elaborate wings. A giant tongue flicked out, cleaning an eyeball. "Who is this? Actually Satan?"

"Naaaaah, he's not," Satan rasped and Magnus looked at him with a frown. "He means the boss. I'm Satan and the boss is Actually Satan." Loki nodded enthusiastically.

"The Actually is important," Loki said with perfect sincerity but no one got the joke. Honestly, Loki didn't get the joke either, he just knew it WAS a joke somehow. Somewhere. Somewhen?

"His name is Tzeentch. Have you come to swear yourself to his service and join us to learn, little sorcerer?" Magnus asked and Loki immediately bridled.

"Nuh uh. No. No way. Not ever, no, no no no, and shut up Satan the answer is NO!" Loki pointed sternly at the iguana, who swiveled his eyes to look up at him.

"Don't you want to be a wizard?" Satan said with a sly tone and Loki gave him the stink eye.

"Wizards aren't real and I don't want to be a psyker. Being a psyker sucks," Loki said firmly. "Being a wizard means having a staff and casting spells and having a familiar that isn't an iguana. Being a psyker means having demons trying to eat you all the time unless you swear yourself to a demon god and then you have to deal with THAT, and you have an iguana." Loki paused for a moment. "I admit, the iguana isn't too bad but everything else sucks."

"Oh noooo," Satan rasped. Magnus was less than impressed, lifting an eyebrow.

"You have no choice about being a psyker, little sorcerer. If you refuse your gifts, they will come out," he said and Loki knew he was mostly right. Still.

"I'm a necron, if I don't want to be a psyker I can just get loaded up with blackstone," he said mulishly. "I'll have to give up my dreams but I can get my energy out with interpretive dance!" Loki began to dance a little, showing off a few of his moves. He was a very good dancer! And he COULD dance in public! Sure, everyone would think he was weird but they did anyway.

"A necron?" Loki stopped, a bit surprised that Magnus didn't know that. "Are they not soulless? And you are clearly human."

"Uh… that's a long story," Loki said and Magnus shook his head.

"I have been too busy watching the consequences of the fall of Slaanesh to concern myself with mortals, let alone mechanical xenos," Magnus said and Loki blinked. Wow, he held the necrons in contempt! It was kind of weird. Well, he would fix that!

"Well, the fall of Slaanesh? WE DID THAT! So yeah, take that!" Loki made a victory sign and Magnus' eyebrows shot for his hairline. Loki was sure he was going to object and say it was the eldar so he went on. "WE helped the eldar get the final sword! WE let them summon Ynnead on our planet! We helped make this happen cuz we are AWESOME!" Maybe he shouldn't be blabbing but everyone knew about the prophecy and the Sword and Shield of God and then the battle of Yggdrasil. Footage from it had been used to make recruitment videos on Hope and a LOT of people had joined up, Loki had heard. They were even forming some kind of religious regiment for women modeled on the Sisters of Battle, although you had to pass some incredibly strict tests to join it.

"Please tell me what happened from the beginning," Magnus requested. Loki grinned. The beginning?!

"Well my mom had sex – just kidding, just kidding. Where should I start though?" Loki pondered it for a moment. "So my planet was at war with the drukhari…" Loki went through the whole history of Hope, what had happened with the Uhnashret Dynasty and then Sautekh and what he knew about the events leading up to the battle of Yggdrasil. Loki was confident he could impart this information, he knew exactly what he needed to keep quiet about, mainly the STC. Although the Imperium knew about that now… still, others might be interested in it too. The tau in particular would probably LOVE to pick the STC's brains, but they were never going to let them.

"I see. Perhaps I should pay more attention to mortal events," Magnus said thoughtfully and Loki wondered if he knew about the Pariah Nexus. If he was some kind of seer then SURELY – "I have seen that the Imperium will prevail against the necrons, but I was unaware that the situation was more complicated."

"Oh well, that's really good! You kind of remind me of Odin and he was cursed," Loki said, feeling relieved. Magnus tilted his head, inviting him to continue. "He could see the future but he couldn't change it. Anything he saw, was set in stone and if he tried to change it he'd just make it happen." Magus frowned and Loki could tell he really didn't like that thought. Still, it was how the curse worked. "Not that you're Odin or anything!" Not definitely Odin. Who knew though.

"Tell me, little sorcerer. Do you have anything to do with the recent attack on Tizca?" Magnus abruptly changed the subject and Loki blinked.

"Uh, not that I know of. What happened?" Magnus described it. Apparently, a giant serpent had come through the Immaterium and thrashed around a bit, breathing on some of it before they'd managed to banish it. "Wow… yeah, I don't think that has anything to do with me. I haven't had any dreams about snakes," Loki said doubtfully. He was never willing to rule out that he was causing problems – he was kind of noted for that – but he didn't see how he could have brought a giant serpent to Tizca. Magnus nodded.

"I see. Well, a great deal of time has passed. You should go home, little sorcerer," he said and Loki checked his own internal time sense before wincing. It was almost daybreak! He'd get in trouble if he was late!

"Uh, right! See you later!" Loki said before taking the easiest way out… he slipped through the magic of the windows and jumped right out. He fell only briefly before jumping back into his body. As he did, he twitched and steadied himself before glancing out the window. Dawn was just beginning, a bit of light staining the horizon. Loki had a bit of time, so he set himself into a quick 'sleep' cycle. His dreams were not sleep at all, if anything they could drain his mind. And Loki had learned the hard way that necrons NEEDED to sleep. It had been really embarrassing when he'd suddenly reached his limit and keeled over during a card game. He'd gotten mocked about that for MONTHS!

Loki didn't want to do something that dumb again, so he would take care of himself.

After the little sorcerer was gone, Magnus stared after him thoughtfully before turning back to his vision of Chaos.

Magnus stared into the Chaos of the Warp, and looked into one particular place. The vibrant and beautiful growth left behind by the 'death' of the Prince of Pleasure. Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeentch had divvied up the vast majority of her power, but some things were too far outside any of their attributes. Most of that had died on the vine, but with Slaanesh gone, some ancient survivors were coming out of hiding. A small but bitterly determined group of lust demons, from various cultures and races. One thing that was like a sharpened diamond, gorgeously beautiful and tempting you to touch it, but if you did you would bleed. As he looked at it, Magnus heard a soft chorus of whispers, singing its' name. Inanna. Ishtar. Inanna. Ishtar. Magnus shook his head, and passed on by. To have survived this long, hiding away from Slaanesh, indicated this thing was dangerous indeed.

Not remotely dangerous, but even more impressive in its way, was the flower that was growing. Little buds were spreading and blooming, forming flower after flower and Magnus could sense tremendous relief. She is the fire in your heart. She is the joy that moves your hands. She is the suffering, the angst, the pain you endure. She is the inspiration of all things. She is the Muse. Magnus marvelled that somehow, the ancient myth/dream of the Muse had survived Slaanesh. Had the Prince of Pleasure refused to ingest her because it might be a bit too positive?

(that was actually exactly it. The Muse had been a bit too pure for the Prince of Excess to stomach)

None of the other Chaos Gods gave a damn about the Muse, and it was too powerful for anything less to be a threat. But all of this was making Magnus think.

Is it impossible that Loki-but-not-the-real-one is in fact the actual Loki? The Immaterium was full of all kinds of non-Chaos aligned entities. As a rule, worshipping any god of war meant worshipping Khorne, and any god of fertility or death was Nurgle, and any god of knowledge was Tzeentch. Yet, things often slipped through the cracks, entities who were different enough to scrape by and survive. They had to be tough and strong, to avoid being absorbed by the greater entities, but the ancient story of Loki was exactly the kind of thing Magnus would expect COULD have survived. It would have some affiliation with Tzeentch but nothing else and of all the Ruinous Powers, Tzeentch was the most notorious for letting smaller powers run free. He loved the chaos of it all. Loki would also have some affiliation with Cegorach, but the aeldari gods typically did not absorb other deities at all. They would have been stronger if they had.

Still, was it remotely likely that Loki had some affiliation with the true Loki? Magnus wasn't sure. His instinctive grasp of astral projection would suggest it, but Magnus knew how incredibly difficult it was to arrange such things. His father had needed to bargain with the forces of the Immaterium in order to bind Warp entities into his sons. It was beyond belief that this could have happened naturally. No, it required the intervention of a greater power to make such things become reality. And from the description given of Hope, such intervention was nearly impossible.

On balance, Magnus decided that Loki was probably just an extremely gifted psyker. He really should get trained… Magnus strongly suspected that with training, he would be able to project his 'dream' into the material world. In fact, even without training he probably could do it, but Loki simply didn't realize it was possible. He had no idea that if he wanted, he could impose his will on everything around him and make it dance to his tune.

Perhaps it is for the best. This strangely internalized power seemed to be completely escaping notice, not just from other psykers, but from the demons of the Warp. That made Magnus wonder again if Loki was perhaps the actual entity… such a thing would certainly be able to hide itself. Then he put the thought aside, and began searching for that strange serpent entity. It had caused massive chaos in Tizca and very nearly destroyed the library, which was intolerable.

Magnus wanted to give it a sharp lesson in manners.