**Author's notes: Magos Jinnicky's voice is definitely Doctor Mobius's voice from Fallout: New Vegas. Also, this chapter has a brief scene that was foreshadowed all the way back in chapter 3! And finally, views are still broken for authors on this site. They've been busted for over a month now!**
Null quietly hummed a tune to himself as we ventured up the metal stair that had been cut directly into the cliff. There was, at least, an ancient metal railing that separated us from taking a tumble off the mountainside. The railing and the metal stair were both of a peculiarly ornamental design, and appeared very well crafted. Elegant swirls and filigrees decorated its pitted silver surface, and while time appeared to have worn much of it away, it remained mostly solid aside from a few rickety areas that I made sure not to grip too firmly. Once upon a time, the design of this stairway was probably exceedingly beautiful.
Climbing upward into the cold mist, I pondered this as I touched the railing with my right hand. It appeared that great care had been taken into crafting these metal furnishings. The stairs that we trod upon were set directly onto stone steps on the mountain. It must have taken an incredible amount of labor to affix this decorative stair to the stone halfway up the mountain!
"Did Magos Jinnicky design this stairway?" I asked Null as I continued to follow the Tech-priest upward. As we climbed, we stopped for a few moments as he briefly checked each step for ice or any instability, of which there was none. The fog seemed to be getting even thicker though, which was unsettling.
"It would be incredible if he did in this short amount of time on his own, but I do not think so," Null answered, tapping at the pitted railing with a whip mechadendrite. "This is an alloy of adamantium and another metal, one I cannot immediately discern. Such wear suggests that this has been a fixture against these mountain cliffs for many, many millennia."
"To wear adamantium down such would take many years," Lian rumbled behind me, his deep voice muffled in the freezing foggy air.
"Yes. What I speculate is that this dig site included this stair, and judging by its workmanship, this mountain must have been a very important location in the past, and since Traveler-specific artifacts were discovered here by Magos Amee's mercenaries, I am most excited on what this site holds!"
I leaned on my force staff for support as we all took a short break from climbing on one of the two meter wide steps before making our way further upward. Null had discovered a layer of ice atop the next flight of stairs, and was now busying himself with blazing it away with fire conjured away from one of his mechadendrites. As the Tech-priest worked, the mist poured around us in an almost liquid heaviness, its cold humidity chilling my bones. Visibility was extremely poor, and because of the precarious nature of the railing, I didn't feel comfortable with using weather magic to clear the fog away with wind. Knowing my propensity for disaster, I'd probably accidentally summon another tornado and blow us all off the cliff.
With a tap of my force staff, I turned to the Tech-priest as he stepped back down to where the rest of our little band stood. "So, Null. I remember that you told me that this is where Nimmie Amee got that one artifact with that one... code." I did not finish my train of thought since Lian was here. Eventually, I would probably have to tell my crew what sort of memories Null actually held, but right now, it was easier to keep this terrible secret.
"Yes," Null responded flatly, briefly glancing upward at Lian, who continued to watch for trouble. "I'm interested in unlocking more of what is locked away in my mind. I have reason to believe that I hold more xenos-centric information that could be used to safely imprison the C'tan in that jeweled belt. And, if Magos Amee found a cache of Traveler artifacts so valuable that she left someone here to secure this area, then this site must indeed be important."
"The secure imprisonment of such a monster is a good goal," Lian responded to Null in an appreciative tone. I noticed that the Fallen Paladin had drawn his sword from on his back as he continued to eye the obfuscated area for threats. Could Space Marines see through fog like this? "And to enrich our history with knowledge of your valiant predecessors is a an honorable action as well. Rest assured, Inheritor. Should I reunite with my Brothers, and if it is your wish, I will take the information I will learn here and have it transcribed for all to benefit from eons into the future."
"Okay, neat," I breathed quietly, not really paying attention.
We were on our way up the stairs again. Cold white mist mist continued to billow ahead, obscuring any view whatsoever. Halfway up this flight of stairs, Wolfie made a strange sound that sounded like a whine and a growl. We continued to walk, but the astral hound transmitted an unusual thought to me: METAL... METAL...
"Yeah, buddy. We're going to see another guy like Null here. A metal guy," I replied. Wolfie whined again, and I got the impression that the astral hound was strangely excited, but aside from that, I couldn't quite discern what was causing the little Warp beast to behave this way since he couldn't communicate as easily as the rest of us.
Before us as a featureless shadow in the fog, Null announced, "Ah, finally." The Tech-priest then turned around and announced to us in a soft voice, "Up here is the end of the stair. There is another wide stone surface ahead. This one looks damaged by artillery, but I can't be certain. With my enhanced vision, I see that it is fifty meters or so in width, littered with boulders, and that it lays before a wide opening into the mountain below the tower about f-" The Tech-priest then paused mid-sentence, and blinked his animated eyes repeatedly. "Oh, goodness. I believe I have had what the fleshlings call, a 'flashback'. I- I feel as if I have... been here before. It is a most uncanny feeling."
"Déjà vu?" I quietly asked. "Have you been here before? Any particularly old memories?"
"Deja what?"
"Déjà vu. It's a term for feeling like you've been in a situation before from my universe. Like, a weird little intuition that you've been in this exact situation or place before. I can explain it better later. Is there anything else is up there, Null? Anything?" I asked in a hoarse whisper. A wave of concern emanated from the Fallen Paladin's soul, and now, I could see that Lian was gripping Durendal tightly as he looked upward toward the clouded stair.
Does he grow mad again? Lian inquired.
I shook my head, and replied with I hope not. The Fallen Paladin and I continued to watch Null with worry. I really hoped he wouldn't lose his mind again. How the fuck would Lian and I pilot the Horse of a Different Color if Null inconveniently lost his marbles again?
Null did not speak, and stood still. He then blinked twice on the stair before turning back around to look up the stair again. "Oh, how utterly peculiar!" The Tech-priest then began to climb upward again, and in a few moments, he had vanished behind a thick veil of billowing fog!
"Null!" I hissed loudly in alarm. Fuck!
Lian looked to me for instruction. Another quick pull of Sight did not register any life forms in the immediate area, Warp-related or not. Maybe we were just jumpy because of our experiences in the last few days. A few tense heartbeats later, and Null had reappeared halfway down the stair again. Before the Tech-priest could say anything, I scolded him in a harsh whisper. "Don't... don't fucking run off, Null!"
"I've scanned the area above more thoroughly, and I see nothing warm or living with my infrared vision, but I now hear a strange ticking sound in the direction of the mountain. It is at the very edge of my hearing, and there are still many places I cannot adequately see up there," Null offered softly.
"I hear nothing," Lian informed us. "My hearing is exceptional."
"Clicking?" I mumbled before quickly asking, "Please tell me that Magos Jinnicky is definitely expecting us," I implored Null.
"Our expectation was implied by the message, yes. Although, Magos Jinnicky did say something about a guardian. But, he informed us that as long as we speak the motto of the Travelers that we'd be allowed in."
"Oh..." I breathed, now remembering what the message had said. That's right. The message did say that. There's probably some kind of sentry bot upstairs guarding the site, which was why I couldn't sense anything living. "When we're upstairs and away from any cliffs, I'll try to blow away the fog so we can see a little better. We have an invitation, so we shouldn't be nervous."
"Very well," Null nodded and turned back around.
The top of the stairs was only about six steps upward, and opened up to a very rough and rocky stone surface from what I could see at my feet. "Alright folks, move away from the cliff so I don't blow you off of it. I'm good at tornados but I'm not sure if I'm good at light breezes," I instructed my crew. Our group walked further through the rough platform, picking our way through the broken, cracked surface. Once we were a few paces away from the cliffside, I began to call upon my wizard powers.
My psychic strength was pushed into my force staff, which caused it to lightly glow with a pale gold radiance along with my Corona. I visualized the fog being pushed away by gusts of warm dry air from my staff, and soon, the landscape around us began to reveal itself.
The surface before us was similar to how Null had described to us as I blew away the fog. This area was a blasted, very uneven surface of rock adjacent to another cliffside, above which, Jinnicky's tower stood proudly. Small craters that looked like they had been caused by explosives littered this area along with boulders ranging between Lian's height and half my height. What surprised and disturbed me was the presence of what appeared to be patches of gore and blood scattered here and there on the rocky field. Wolfie, at my feet, began to growl-whine again as the fog continued to push away.
Suddenly, an alarming image flashed in my mind as I continued to concentrate on clearing the air. A vision of a giant mechanical brass scorpion with many watchful eyes burned through me, and with great alarm, my attention was abruptly pulled to the large opening in the mountainside, which was just starting to clear.
Before I could react to warn my companions of danger, a grinding voice then called from a hidden speaker somewhere nearby.
"Trying to steal your way into my forbidden zone again, fools? Won't you damn primitives ever learn? Taste the sting of my engineering genius! Robo-scorpion, attack!"
I could now hear a faint clicking sound, followed by a large "clunk" sound, and then, the stone ground below us briefly shook. More metal "clunk-ing" sounds began to echo across the mountainside. "Oh, shit..." I mumbled, pausing my efforts to move the fog away just in time to see a brass shadow begin to move forward from the opening of the mountain.
"Oh, no..." Null also mumbled.
The monster was easily over five meters in height and it resembled a massive mechanized brass scorpion. The robo-scorpion had multiple blazing red eyes, and two massive pinchers as long as my body was tall. It snapped both pinchers as it began to scuttle ahead to confront us. Behind its main segmented torso, a very tall brass scorpion tail with a stinger the size of a scimitar swayed high above its body!
"I fight in the name of the Inheritor!" the Fallen Paladin shouted as he moved to stand before me, his power sword crackling to life in a bright electric aura. Wolfie, always in the mood for a fight, didn't hesitate to charge ahead toward the robo-scorpion in an unholy blur of snarling back smoke. Wolfie's charge succeeded in pausing the advancement of the metal beast as it became occupied with the astral hound snapping at its insect legs. Lian began to cautiously advance now, Durendal held in both hands as he studied the motions of the giant robotic insect. Quickly getting my bearings, I frantically drew upon my Sight, and sent a gold lightning bolt arcing through the air to strike at the metal scorpion's tail.
The robo-scorpion was still occupied with Wolfie's snapping and growling when it was struck by my gold lightning bolt, which caused a blinding shower of sparks to fall across the landscape. Before I could react further with summoning more magic to destroy my enemies, I heard Null shouting beside me.
"Sit nomen viator benedictum!" the Tech-priest bellowed at the top of his synthetic lungs! "Magos Jinnicky, I am a visiting contemporary of Magos Nimmie Amee of the Tower of Reason of Tar Vigaz! You invited us here, and we demand you cease your aggression!"
As the shower of sparks from my lightning bolt dimmed, I watched as the robo-scorpion continued to attempt to snap at Wolfie with its pinchers, its tail now drooping as if injured. Null then loudly repeated the words, "Sit nomen viator benedictum!" again, which then finally caused the scorpion to pause its attacks, freezing like a statue. Lian also stopped advancing, and held his power sword high at the ready. Wolfie, being Wolfie, continued barking and snapping angrily.
"Oh! You're that little group that came here aboard the gold eagle!" an amused (and even slightly silly) grinding male voice finally responded loudly from all around us, his words echoing loudly across the mountain and easily able to be heard over Wolfie's barking. "Why didn't you say so? Belay your defensive measures, my glorious robo-scorpion minion! Do not att- oh..." the voice now sounded both sad and surprised. "You... you eagle people from the Tower of Reason hurt my pet! Whoever conjured that bolt to strike my robo-scorpion has injured my big baby boy! Oh, oh my sweet precious Snappy! I'll be right down!"
The robo-scorpion remained completely frozen in the center of the rough blasted ground, and Wolfie remained barking at the top of whatever counted as his lungs. Lian turned to me for instruction, and I broke this tense silence in saying, "Alright, alright. Fun's over, I hope. Wolfie, relax. Lian, at ease."
The astral hound turned toward me, and cocked his head. NO FIGHT? the little dog "thought" at me, his mood clearly disappointed.
"No, no fight. I hope not," I said to the astral hound before a grinding sound began to echo across the landscape. A small rectangular doorway was slowly pulling itself open beside the larger opening the scorpion had come through.
As we waited for the mountain door to open, Null tapped a mechadendrite against my shoulder, almost causing me to cry out in fright. I turned, and saw that the Tech-priest was holding out one of his metal arms, and was quickly typing out a message on a keyboard that had appeared on his forearm. A small green projection of a few words pointed toward the floor. These words said, "Smething wrng here. Atypicl Magos."
Lian, relax, but be ready for trouble. Null thinks there's something wrong with this Magos, I psychically whispered to the Fallen, who nodded once in acknowledgement. He stepped back to stand with Null and I, still holding his power sword in both hands, but relaxing his stance somewhat. Even without his armor, Lian was an extremely imposing figure, especially with his dark civilian winter clothes.
The grinding mountain door was now open, and since I wasn't blowing the fog away anymore, mist had begun to obscure the area again. I could see that a stooped figure wearing a red robe was now rushing out toward the frozen robo-scorpion, murmuring in worry in a grinding, almost hysterical voice.
None of us moved as we watched the figure in red robes kneel beside the brass mechanical monster, comforting it as if it were a huge puppy. He then made a very worried sound, and began to pet the scorpion's damaged tail. Now that he was closer, I could tell that this was the same figure I had seen in the hologram message delivered to us by the drone earlier. Eight thin metal arms reached out from a bent torso to soothe the brass construct that lay motionless before us. This Magos's appearance reminded me of Nimmie Amee's spidery body.
My companions and I stood nervously glancing at one another for a short time, listening to the upset voice of the red-robed figure coo and fuss over the robo-scorpion before us.
"Magos Jinnicky, I presume?" I finally asked after the awkwardness got to be too much.
The figure in the red robe stopped his fussing and began walking over to where we all stood near the stair. Once close, the Magos straightened up to his full formidable height to gaze down at us with multiple glowing green eyes atop a metal face half-concealed in various tubes and blinking lights. "Yes, this is he," the Tech-priest said in his grinding voice before stepping forward to confront us. Magos Jinnicky was an intimidating figure. He was slightly taller than Lian, and more heavily built than Null. He was extremely imposing, and resembled much of the eerie art of more heretical Tech-priests I had seen in the lore. Despite his threatening appearance, I did not sense any sort of Chaotic taint on this scary Magos, but I did get the feel that this individual was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. The Magos stood before us and huffed, "Your lightning strike shorted out my baby's stinger."
"I'm sorry, but it felt like your 'baby' was about to kill us," I said with a tap of my force staff.
Magos Jinnicky cocked his head, his motions halting as he continued to observe our little band, his main attention fixed on Null. "You come from the Traveler researchers at the Tower of Reason of Tar Vigaz, but why are you only this many? Where are your adepts? Your assistants? And why does a Warp beast stand beside the psyker woman?" the imposing Tech-priest asked me in an accusatory tone. Wolfie whined in response.
"She's not a witch of Chaos, if you were concerned," Null spoke up, and stepped forward. "We have come at your invitation, Magos. I am a contemporary of Magos Nimmie Amee, and we bring some exciting news to you concerning Traveler research."
"Oh, yes. You did come at my invitation. I remember now," Magos Jinnicky seemed to relax then, and he nodded. "Do forgive me. My studies have left me somewhat addled." The Tech-priest then politely bowed before us before pointing back to the entryway in the mountain that he had come from. "Who are you all, and explain the presence of the Warp beast? May I have your designations?"
"My name is simply Null, Magos. No honorific required. The Astartes you see before is named Lian, and he is an Honor Guard sworn to protect his charge." Null then turned to me, and his green eyes were smiling. "And this woman, even though you may not believe me, goes by the designation of 'Inheritor'. She is a Traveler, and a vaunted one at that. The Warp beast is bonded to her, and I have seen the creature's loyalty demonstrated time and time again."
Magos Jinnicky quickly snapped his head toward me. "What? You cannot be serious. An Inheritor?"
"Yeah, that's me," I said with a grin before turning on my Corona, letting in bathe our little meeting in a soft gold glow. I then pushed a little bit of power behind my voice, and said, "I'm not from this universe."
The Magos stood dumbstruck before us in the fog, his many eyes flickering. "This must be a joke, really. You are joking with me, Null. The adepts of the Tower of Reason have always shared Magos Amee's proclivity for humor."
"No joke," Null replied. "She's living and breathing, and not confined on Terra like her predecessor. We live in exciting times, Magos."
Magos Jinnicky continued to stare at me, filled with disbelief. I sensed incredulity wafting from his soul. "I'm not certain if I believe you. Travelers are rare creatures by themselves, but Inheritors? I do, fortunately, have an easy way to test the truth of your claims at my dig site. Speaking of that, you are formally invited to visit, despite your nasty magic against my sweet baby boy Snappy." The Magos turned back to the frozen robo-scorpion. A crackling sound could be heard from somewhere inside the creature's chassis. "Come, come, step into my parlor. Leave your daemon-creature in the Warp, though. I do not tolerate such things."
After I dismissed Wolfie to the Warp, our little group was now climbing a wide spiral staircase inside the mountain that led upward to the tower. The stairs here seemed to be a utilitarian steel, and likely crafted very recently unlike the switchbacks on the side of the mountain. Magos Jinnicky walked ahead of us, and began to speak: "I apologize for Snappy's behavior. Out here, I have many foes, and I must protect myself. This world has many secrets on top of being so very close to Cyclothrathe. When the first explorer passed through the Warp Gate orbiting above Ix in recent times, it was initially thought that this world was uninhabited, but this was not the case, as I have discovered. Xenos prowl beneath the surface, and primitive human tribesmen stalk the wilderness. Snappy takes care of most problems, and if I ever need more help, I have my gravel men to assist me."
"How long have you been here?" I asked.
"I've been stationed here for two months excavating the stronghold inside the mountain. The tower is just my base of operations here," Magos Jinnicky explained as we arrived at the 'ground floor' of the tower. We were now in a very wide round room that extended the diameter of the structure. The stonework was rough and exposed. Various electronics, worktables, and even a handful of servitors busied themselves here. There was also another spiraling staircase that led further upward into the tower.
A second closed doorway also caught my attention. It was a large door three meters in height that was fixed directly into the tower's side, and was made of very heavy banded metal. Magos Amee noticed my attention on the secure door, and said, "This leads to the stronghold of what is rumored to be an ancient Inheritor known as the Pale Lord. I keep it locked at all times. It is the only known way into the site at this present time, so I must keep it secure."
"The Pale Lord," I wondered aloud. While there were no Inheritors with that specific designation, I did remember that Spoiled Prince's description had called him the "Pale Lord of Prosperity". Could this be a Spoiled Prince site? If so, this was very exciting.
As I contemplated on the Pale Lord's identity, Null and Lian both observed this scientific space, watching the busy servitors. They appeared to be cleaning bits of stone, sifting gravel, and polishing small pieces of machinery. "It is good that you were sent here with help, at least," Null remarked with appreciation.
"Oh no. Magos Amee sent me with far fewer servitors than what I have now. I've needed to requisition some of the local population for my needs. There is much work to be done here, so it was necessary," Magos Jinnicky laughed, and motioned that we should continue following him upstairs.
As we continued following Magos Jinnicky, I found my stomach turning in disgust. It appeared that Jinnicky had done just what Null had done on Levant, which was the servitor enslavement of the local population. I reminded myself that the Imperium did this sort of terrible bullshit regularly. Even though the Imperium was often seen as the "good" guys in the lore, they were still evil.
Magos Jinnicky continued to speak without a care in the world as he climbed the stairs. "Many of my servitors are now called my 'gravel men', as I have named them. They sift through the rooms of stone and rubble within the stronghold, searching for lost artifacts."
"Convenient, and creative," Null replied with appreciation. "In remote regions, one must always be willing to make creative solutions for unique problems."
Null and Jinnicky continued to chatter and make small talk about brutally enslaving innocent people as we continued to climb. I hated this. I hated servitors, I thought, feeling my anger begin to kindle again as we finally emerged in the top floor of Jinnicky's tower. Here, we were now in a wide round space filled with art objects, and strange nearly-amorphous machines of unknown use that blinked and whirred. An area that appeared to be a meeting area had been set up with a long table and eight metal stools.
A slender female servitor that had clearly been a young attractive woman stood motionless nearby. She approached Magos Jinnicky as he led us to the table. The servitor wore a featureless black rubber suit common to most servitors, and her eyes had been replaced by two glowing red orbs for some reason. Painful-looking chromed metal attachments snaked out of the joints of her arms, likely reinforcing her ability to carry weight, and two mechadendrites hung behind each shoulder. Her exposed skin, I noticed, was a dusky bronze that would be common to see in someone of Native American heritage.
The Magos stood before the servitor, and began to give her instructions. "Guest order process 7-T, and-" the Tech-priest turned to speak with us. "Would you all care for a refreshment? I have recaf, glucose solution, saline, and nutritional protein slurry readily available."
"Uh, I'll take recaf," I sputtered, trying to keep my anger tempered. It would do no good to default to violence in this situation. I had to keep myself under control. We needed this guy for now, and I had to stop my trend of destroying everything I touch. I took a deep breath and sat down at one of the table's heads.
"I will take recaf as well, Magos," Lian added as he sat down next to me, the stool groaning under his weight.
"Then all three of us will have recaf," Null announced, sitting on my other side. "Ah! What an interesting tower!"
"Very well, visitors," Magos Jinnicky responded and barked a long series of numbers to the comely female servitor, who stiffly walked away.
Control yourself, Erika, I mentally admonished myself, forcibly quieting my Corona.
Magos Jinnicky sat down at the other head of the table. "So, I do appreciate your little joke earlier that you are a living Inheritor. A sense of humor is good for a psyker to have! At the very least, you do have a rather enchanting halo, psyker girl. I give you credit for that. Maybe you don't know this, but the proximity aura of an Inheritor is believed to be overwhelming."
"Well, I am one," I said with a shrug, my irritation increasing. "I don't know what kind of 'test' you need me to do, but I'm the real deal."
"Yes, yes. Funny, funny. So, I'm assuming that you're all at least somewhat initiated on the secrets of the Travelers?"
"I am a Traveler. I'm not only a Traveler, but I'm an Inheritor," I immediately corrected, letting my halo shine again.
"Yes, yes, of course. So you say," Jinnicky replied with an amused flash of his many eyes. What this rude Magos said next almost caused me to explode. "So, Null, as you know, fleshling psykers often exhibit delusional or erratic thinking at higher classification. While I respect that you travel with her, have you had her inspected for taint recently?"
"Do you want me to prove it to you?" I barked angrily, letting my power flow through me. Null immediately took it upon himself to start talking to Jinnicky in order to draw his attention away from pissing me off. Luckily, before I could lose my temper, I felt Lian's hand on my shoulder.
Do you mean to purge this man? Lian transmitted to me. Do you need my assistance?
No, I answered quickly with a sigh. Fuck, calm down!
"Er, I d-do confirm her existence as Inheritor to you, Magos," Null hastily repeated to Jinnicky. "She is who she is. If you knew that you stood before an avatar of the Omnissiah, would you be speaking with such disrespect?"
"Avatar of the Omnissiah? Oh, please!" Magos Jinnicky laughed. "A lovely joke, Null. But truthfully, I mean no disrespect," Magos Jinnicky chuckled in a carefree way, completely unbothered by my anger. He even waved one of his mechadendrites in a dismissive manner. "I am simply concerned, that is all. We're far away from any outpost for any sort of security, and the claims that are being made are quite improbable." The lady servitor appeared again, now holding a tray with three metal cups, one fluted glass vial, and a metal pitcher. She began to serve us all, placing the metal cups before me, Lian, and Null, and placing the fluted glass vial before Jinnicky. The metal pitcher contained hot recaf, and it was poured into each of our metal cups. "But, if you're all insistent on following through with this falsity, as I said before, any wild claims of being a divine entity from beyond the boundaries of our universe can be proven at this site, which is fortuitous. When I take you on a tour later, we will see!"
"What have you discovered here? What is this site?" Null asked quickly, keeping Jinnicky's attention away from insulting me further.
"Ah, I will go into further detail when I am given news on the status of the Tower of Reason. Just to be certain you are who you claim to be. It has been so long since I have seen dear Nimmie. How is she? You know, she told me that she was on the verge of a breakthrough of a sort. Something to do with cloning. Do you happen to know what it is, my fellow?"
"I do not know," Null replied. "And unfortunately, well..." the Tech-priest trailed off, hesitating as he attempted to find the words for "Nimmie Amee is presumed dead, the Tower of Reason was first taken over by the hereteks of Langwidere, then partially blown up by plasma torpedoes, and then finally, invaded by xenos". Eventually, the Tech-priest gently started with, "I regret to inform you that the world of Tar Vigaz has undergone a hardship very recently."
"A hardship?" Magos Jinnicky said as he sipped his mysterious drink between a small opening in the mess of metal wires and tubes in what counted as his monstrous approximation of a face. While I didn't know much about this guy, my initial first impression of him was that he was both strange and insufferable.
Null gripped his metal cup tightly in his gold hand, gathering himself for what he was about to reveal. "Yes. It would take some time to explain, but we fled that world as it was under siege by the xenos known as Necrons. We were advised to come here by Magos Amee herself as this world could be accessed through a small Warp Gate. The Necrons that were both assaulting Tar Vigaz and chasing us could not follow us through this Gate."
Magos Jinnicky froze as stiffly as his robo-scorpion at hearing this news, his fluted glass held in one spider-like arm as his many green eyes flashed and flickered. Shock radiated from the addled Magos' soul, and after a short time, he began to speak in a soft, almost dangerous tone: "If you were in contact with Nimmie, why is she not with you then? Why did you leave her behind?"
"Magos Amee needed to stay behind to keep the Vigaz minefield selectively open to allow for evacuations to take place for as long as possible. The minefield controls were only accessible at the Tower of Reason. I pray that she still lives, but..."
Magos Jinnicky placed his glass down. The atmosphere was tense. Was he angry at us for delivering this information? "N-nimmie is... dead?" he questioned.
"I say that I pray that she still lives, but due to the circumstances of Tar Vigaz's troubles, well..."
Jinnicky then slouched, and I saw his chest rise and fall in what appeared to be a large sigh. "She... she died a hero. Of course she would die a hero."
Null nodded. Watching this interaction take place, I was again surprised at the amount of emotion Tech-priests could exhibit. Magos Jinnicky was clearly very upset at this news, and was even referring to Magos Amee by her first name, which suggested familiarity.
Jinnicky deeply sighed again, and clenched all eight of his metal hands repeatedly with the noise of grating metal. This news had clearly disturbed him. He then abruptly stood up, causing his stool to topple over behind him with a crash. "The Warp Gate! The xenos can-"
"The Warp Gate was destroyed just after we passed through it by a Harvest Ship that had been chasing us. The xenos cannot follow us here."
"Destroyed..." Magos Jinnicky repeated the word, and sat back down. "You're... you're not joking about any of this, are you? This... this means that I'm... I'm stranded here! I did not come here on a Warp vessel, only an inter-planetary shuttle."
"If you don't have a Warp-capable vessel, or are in contact with a pickup, I'm afraid you are," Null answered. Jinnicky's eyes then began to flicker, and he bowed in sorrow, placing four of his hands upward to clasp his head.
Oh great, I thought with a sinking feeling. While this guy might have just made a bad first impression with his rudeness (and suspected instability), I was now dreading that we'd have to take him with us. To my knowledge, no one aside from Magos Amee and her adepts knew where Jinnicky was, and even if he was a jerk, leaving him to rot on this world wasn't a moral thing to do. However, I didn't extend the offer of a seat aboard the Divine Retribution to the recalcitrant spider Magos just yet. He was, quite honestly, an asshole, and I wanted to see if another solution might present itself.
Magos Jinnicky nervously began sipping his beverage again. No one spoke for a few moments as he trembled in what I assumed was grief. Null began glancing in my direction, likely hoping that I would make the offer to Jinnicky, but I continued to say nothing. "S-so," the rude metal spider man began, folding four sets of his hands on the table. "Despite my s-situation, you are still friends of Nimmie Amee, and scholars of the sciences of Travelers. W-would you enjoy a tour of the s-site? As I had said, from what I have uncovered, this place was once a stronghold of an Inheritor known as the Pale Lord."
"The Pale Lord," Null hummed as he drummed one of his mechadendrites against the table. "I do not recognize the designation, but it could be the informal name of the Inheritor named Spoiled Prince. Tell me, do you have any images of this 'Pale Lord' individual?"
The Magos' mood abruptly shifted away from his grief. "Unfortunately, no. Due to strange corruptions of both data and physical media, all recordings of this Inheritor lack information on his physical appearance. My gravel men still dig, but the most personal information I have been able to glean so far is that this Inheritor rode upon a ship in the shape of an eagle." Jinnicky, hearing himself say this, then glanced my way, and cocked his head. "Much like the vessel you rode in upon, actually. Curious, curious."
"That's because it's the same damn eagle," I murmured, not enjoying this meeting.
"So you say, so you say. If you truly want to be tested we can do that during the tour. It will be healthy for you to alleviate your psyker delusions."
My Corona flashed briefly again, and I felt that my lip was curling in an expression of reproach. Jinnicky had even turned away from me at this time, and was now talking to Null again. "Nimmie must have given you all instructions before you left her to die, correct? You were, no doubt, directed to check up on me, and to make sure the, uh, neighbors hadn't captured me yet?"
"You're talking about the inconvenient Hell-Forge two light years away, aren't you?" Null quickly asked, sipping his recaf, his eyes narrowed slightly in what appeared to be suspicion. "Actually, I have a question first. This world, from what it appeared on our sensors, appears richly appointed with natural resources. With Cyclothrathe nearby, why haven't the local hereteks assailed this planet? From orbit, it even appeared wild and pristine. I have knowledge that this world existed on star maps even far back during the Horus Heresy. Something here does not add up, if I may be so bold."
"Oh, those hereteks probably couldn't even see this world courtesy of the planetary stealth field. There was one until very recently," Jinnicky offered with a motion of a long clamp mechadendrite pointing upward. "From what I discovered, this world had been veiled beneath an incredibly potent stealth field, hiding its presence from all witnesses. When the first explorers used the Warp Gate months ago, their passage caused a disruption, and now, the orbital stealth field has been sundered. The rest of the galaxy can now see Ix."
"That's one hell of a cloaking device," I remarked with a sip of my recaf. "Someone really wanted to hide this world. Was it made by the local aliens you told us about?"
"She talks a lot, doesn't she?" the Magos giggled in condescension as he turned back to Null before shaking his head. "On that query, I'm actually not certain. I'm still studying the remains of the debris field in orbit above us, but this looks too sophisticated for the local xenos. These creatures here are a race of subterranean humanoids that somewhat resemble the Aeldari, but are not so. They possess some technology, but not enough to cloak this entire world, no."
"It seems this world carries many secrets," Lian rumbled.
"Indeed it does," Jinnicky chirped. "To me, it appears that someone wanted this world to remain hidden, possibly because of those secrets. The secrets of the Travelers are so jealously guarded away from the rest of the galaxy, but I am determined to understand them! And, if that gets me into trouble, so be it!"
"There's that feeling again," Null whispered quietly as he gazed into his cup of recaf. "Déjà vu."