Leman stared at the boy with a puzzled expression. After a long silence, he spoke.
"Father?" Leman said.
"Yes. Though, it is understandable that you would not recognize me." the boy said. He spoke with a youthful and cheery candor, yet his words carried the same weight and authority as Leman remembered when speaking to his father so long ago. "I apologize for ending our last conversation so soon, the circumstances were… less than ideal. Now, however, we are free to talk to our hearts' content."
Leman was speechless, perhaps even a little dumbstruck. Whatever he was expecting to find here, it certainly wasn't this. He had so many questions, was filled with so many swirling emotions, he felt as though he had forgotten how to speak. After some deliberation, he mustered up the will to speak.
"The… the fruit… there is no fruit." he said, stumbling over his words.
"Oh, you mean this?" The Emperor said, holding out a golden apple and bearing a mischievous grin. "Catch!" he said, throwing the apple into Leman's hand. The boy leaned back, putting his hands behind his head. Leman inspected the fruit with a look of bewilderment.
"I… I don't understand. What is this place?" Leman said.
"This place is a font of pure warp energy, a wellspring reaching down into the very heart of creation. Upon it grows a tree which blossoms with fruit every few thousand years, though it has withered with time… as the power of the other four grows, siphoning the power of the warp like leeches. This may be its last flowering, should their power not be undone." the boy said. Leman examined the apple closely, feeling as though it had suddenly become much heavier in his hand.
"The fruit that can heal any wound…" Leman said.
"What you hold in your hand is a container of concentrated, distilled warp essence. It can do far more than heal wounds…" he said.
"In my vision, I saw your true form… with this fruit I could restore you to life!" Leman said. "You would be just as you were before your mutilation at the hands of Horus!" Leman was ecstatic, lost in visions of restored glory and nostalgic grandeur.
When he looked upon the Emperor's face, however, he saw apprehension.
"...what is the matter? Is this not the reason you sent me here?" Leman said with a confused look. The boy's expression shifted, hinting at an inner conflict that Leman was not privy to.
"During the Heresy, just before Horus and his host of traitors besieged the Imperial Palace, Magnus appeared before me in my throne room." the boy said. Leman's eyes widened. He had never heard of this before. "I told him that I would forgive his transgressions, welcome him back into the Imperium without judgment nor punishment. However, I presented him with one condition. He had to abandon his sons, cursed by the flesh-change beyond my ability to cure them, and be granted a new legion." the boy said. Leman was flabbergasted.
"I…" he said, before the emperor interrupted him.
"I will not force you to consider whether you could make such a decision either. It was foolish of me to believe Magnus would accept the proposal, and sure enough he did not. But make no mistake, I would have forgiven any of my sons if given the opportunity, even Horus. Up until the moment I slew him, I was willing to forgive him." the Emperor said.
"You have the power to do such a thing?" Leman said, trying to process the Emperor's words.
"I did… once. Now, I am afraid that my soul has become too fractured… and the Ruinous Powers' grip on your brothers has become too strong… even if I were to be revived by the fruit's power, it is unlikely I could save them alone." the boy said.
"Father…" Leman said, holding his head in his hand. "I do not understand. Why are you telling me this? What is it you wish me to do?"
"What is the name of the godling that traveled here with you, the daughter of the big green fellow?" the boy said. Leman's brow furrowed.
"Admu… that was what Nurgle named her. N-not the Nurgle that you and I know, the uh… the other one." he said.
"Admu…" the Emperor repeated. "She is quite special. Throughout my travels through the warp, I have yet to see anything like her. Growing up here has no doubt been safer for her… yet she is not from this place. It has stifled her development, being cut off from the wider universe." the boy said.
"...what are you saying?" Leman said,
"I have a plan." the Emperor said. "A way to defeat the Chaos Gods for good… by releasing their repressed alternate selves." Leman's eyes widened.
It's just as Khorne and Tzeentch spoke of… Leman thought.
"With my current power, I do not have the power to break the seal which imprisons them. However…" the boy said, looking down at the wolf which lay beneath him. "They might."
"The wolf spirit… when exactly were you planning on telling us about that?" Leman said, his expression growing darker.
"I never meant…" the boy said, before pausing for a moment. "It was a lie for my own convenience. I feared what would happen if you knew of the truth… yet it mattered not in the end."
"Whatever happened to the Imperial Truth? You taught us that mankind must never subject itself to the whims of gods or spirits." Leman said, the image of Lorgar and his sons being forced to the ground burning fresh in his mind. "Yet not only are you now talking about relying on gods to defeat our most hated enemies, but you secretly bound our souls to these spirits without our knowledge! What is next, will you renounce your humanity and embrace your role as the god of mankind as Lorgar wished you to?" Leman said. He was not sure where his newfound defiance was coming from, but it felt as though millennia of fear and doubt had all come pouring out.
NO!
The Emperor shouted, standing upright. Despite the boy's physically small stature, Leman felt for a moment that he stood before a giant and recoiled in surprise. However, he did not see anger in the Emperor's face. At least, not anger towards him. He saw anguish and frustration, and something he had never seen in his father's face ever before - doubt. "I promise you that I have not changed my mind on this subject. I will admit… I was mistaken to believe I could banish the Chaos Gods by merely convincing humanity they did not exist… a mistake that has cost me… that has cost all of us dearly." The internal rage in his face had subsided, and his expression softened into that of melancholic regret. "Knowing what I do now, I believe that the gods of the warp can be treated just as any other xenos race: if they are not openly hostile to mankind and it is in our best interest to do so, there is no reason why humanity cannot maintain friendly relations with them in matters of mutual benefit. However, the destiny of mankind must remain in the hands of man and man alone. Humanity must not submit to the will of any god…" the Emperor said, a look of dismay flashing across his face. "...even if that should include myself."
Leman looked upon his father with bewilderment. "What do you mean?" he said. "Father, there is something you are not telling me." he said, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.
The wolf rose upright in a regal stature, looking down upon the Emperor's small form.
I tire of your obfuscations as well. He has more than earned the right to know the truth. The wolf said. The Emperor sighed.
"The truth is… when I was interred upon the Golden Throne, the exertion of the Astronomican combined with my decaying body caused not only my flesh to wither away, but my soul to become fractured and disparate with time. What stands before you is but a portion of my former self, cast out into the warp and adrift from whatever semblance of a man I used to be…" the Emperor said, staring off with a look of despondency. He turned to look at Leman. In that moment he felt as though the Emperor were staring straight into his heart, seeing the millennia of anger and despair, fear and doubt, and, above all else, regret. "I chose you to be my executioner because I knew you were the only one I could trust to follow my orders no matter what… even if it meant slaying your own kin. I knew how much it would hurt you, but I could not entrust anyone else with such a task." the boy said. Leman's mind churned with mixed emotions. "It is for this reason that you are the only one who I can trust with this as well. I am offering you an opportunity to renounce your role as executioner. If you choose to, you may give the fruit to the godli- er, Admu. It will restore the power she lost in her seclusion, giving her the power to cleanse the taint of Chaos from your lost brothers and free the god-spirits bound inside of them. However, it will be up to you to compel them to renounce their treachery and allow her to cleanse them… willingly or not. If you cannot manage to turn them to your side, the only other way to free the spirits bound within them… is to kill them. It is a faint hope, seeing as how much their hatred of me and everything I stood for has festered, but it is better than nothing." The Emperor looked up at Leman with sad, watery eyes, eyes which bore a pain Leman was not sure the Emperor was even capable of feeling before. "I will tell you what I told Magnus on Terra. I would have forgiven him. I would have forgiven any of them if it meant they would return to my side. I would have even forgiven Horus, up until the very moment I watched his soul evaporate from existence by my hand." Leman looked into his father's eyes, remembering every moment he had experienced in the depths of Slaanesh's mansion and feeling the same pain that he knew now that his father had felt for all these millennia.
"I understand." Leman said. The Emperor smiled slightly and wiped a tear from his eye. "I also understand that you are still not telling me the full truth." Leman said. A nearly imperceptible flicker of fear flashed across the boy's face, confirming Leman's suspicion. "You have said it yourself, Admu's power can heal any ailment, physical or spiritual… meaning she could heal your body upon the Golden Throne. Yet you make no mention of it. Why?" Leman said, both emboldened by his newfound confidence and terrified by the idea that there was something the Emperor was not only unwilling to discuss, but afraid to do so.
"There is a reason why I have not given you any commands or orders so far, Leman. You are my most loyal son, I know that you would follow my will to the ends of the universe… by most metrics, you already have. Yet, it is for that reason that I cannot in good conscience order you to do something that could very well directly contradict my own will." the Emperor said. Leman look confused.
"What? How could you order me to do something that would contradict your own will?" Leman said.
"Well… when I spoke of my soul becoming fractured over the millennia…" the boy said, a look of worry and trepidation flashing across his face. "Some of those fractured shards… I no longer recognize them. I am no longer in control of the Golden Throne."
"But… I saw you on the Golden Throne. Was it not you who sent me that message?" Leman said, with a hint of distress in his voice.
"It was, but I was merely… borrowing the Astronomican to contact you. The reason I was unable to speak with you for any longer is that it had returned, and expelled me from the Golden Throne by force." the Emperor said. The look upon his face when he spoke of it unnerved Leman.
"It?" Leman said.
"I saw it only for a moment… though it is perhaps more accurate to say I felt it. It didn't feel like me, or anything that I ever was… yet it knew me. When it looked upon me I felt as though the sun itself was bearing down on me, searing away my very being. I felt trillions of eyes, hands, arms… I could hear the screams of countless souls, burning like fuel to feed a living flame the size of a galaxy. It radiated nothing less than a divine hatred, a jealous loathing towards all those who might touch its precious flock. I fled as quickly as I could, fleeing upon the winds of the Immaterium from its domain. Perhaps it allowed me to convey to you that message for some indiscernible reason… but all I know is that should you revive the corpse that sits upon the Golden Throne, it will not be me who greets you… it will be that."
The sight of his father in such a vulnerable state made Leman intensely uncomfortable, but if what he said was true then it meant that he could no longer look to his father and creator for ultimate guidance. What use was a compass that pointed in multiple directions? Reviving his father from his decrepit state was what brought him here, it was his reason for being all these millennia, his one and only motivation… though perhaps that wasn't true. Leman fought for his Emperor… but he also fought for Fenris, his sons, his brothers, and all of humanity. Perhaps… humanity could survive without the Emperor, at least in his previous form…
Leman rubbed his head, these new thoughts grinding up against everything he had thought he had known. He looked down at the golden fruit, it's crisp skin glimmering with endless possibilities. He envisioned a revived Imperium with the Emperor restored to his rightful place as Master of Mankind… but then he saw reflected in his mind's eye a different scene. It was him, standing alongside his brothers. All of his brothers united against Chaos and whatever else threatened humanity's continued prosperity. He knew it was a childish fantasy, after all the bloodshed, death, and destruction the fighting between his siblings had wrought. He didn't even know whether half of them were alive or dead, and some of them he knew had already perished. Yet, no matter how ridiculous, he couldn't seem to dispel the vision from his mind.
"Many of the primarchs are already dead… and what if I cannot find them all? What if they have vanished without a trace." Leman said, tentatively considering the Emperor-shard's offer.
"I… have considered this. There are ways to recover the spirits bound to a primarch even after their soul has perished. It is significantly more difficult than convincing a living one to cooperate, however." the boy said. His face lit up as he saw Leman beginning to warm up to the idea.
"I will… have to think this over." Leman said. The Emperor simply smiled contentedly.
"It is your decision, my son… and a decision you are right to treat with grave severity. I trust that whatever you decide will ultimately be in the best interest of mankind, Leman Russ." the boy said. A faint breeze started to blow, and a dense fog began to obscure Leman's vision.
"Wait! Father, will I ever see you again?" Leman said.
"I must stay here in the Immaterium… but I will watch over you whenever I am able, my son." the Emperor said, before fading into white light.
Leman opened his eyes, blinking repeatedly. He sat upright, feeling the fatigue from his previous fight return to him. He felt something strange in his hand, before raising it to reveal the golden fruit from his vision.
Least I'm not insane just yet. Leman thought.
He turned the fruit in his hand, feeling the waxy, gleaming skin on his fingertips. He was alerted by the sound of groaning and turned his head to see Admu lying on the ground a few feet away.
"Admu!" he shouted, rushing to her side. Her breathing was ragged, and when he grabbed her side he felt a distinct dampness. Her heartbeat felt weak, and he noticed the site of the wound the demon had initially inflicted upon her was oozing with a foul-smelling liquid.
It must be some kind of venom. Leman thought. There was no way he could carry her all the way to safety, and no help could reach them. Then he remembered the golden fruit he was carrying. He looked at the shining fruit in his palm, staring into its reflective skin and seeing his dreams of a revived Emperor staring back at him… he bit his lip, bringing the fruit to Admu's mouth and crushing it in his hand. The shining gold ichor flowed over his fingers like liquid sunshine, pouring over his hand before coalescing into a single drop that delicately landed between Admu's rosy lips. Her mouth moved unconsciously, drawing the juice onto her tongue after which she swallowed weakly. For a moment, nothing happened. Leman grew worried, cradling her head with his hand.
"Admu? Admu! Admu, wake up!" he said. Slowly but surely, her eyes groggily blinked open. She coughed once or twice, then made a faint smacking sound with her tongue.
"Tastes like… persimmon?" Admu said weakly. Leman breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh… Mister Russ… you're alright…" she said.
"Indeed… and I have you to thank for it." he said.
"Oh… you've got a…" she said, raising her arm delicately to touch the gouge on his cheek inflicted during his fight with the serpent. Miraculously, when she placed her hand upon his face Leman could feel the wound close and suture itself, leaving not even a scar behind. Suddenly Admu groaned in pain, her arm falling limply to the ground.
"Are you alright?" he said.
"Yes… I just… felt really… tired all of a sudden…" she said, breathing slightly heavier. After a moment of rest, she felt strong enough to sit upright. She straightened her arms out, stretching her aching muscles. "Ahhhhh… I feel much better now!" she said, her voice regaining its chipper tone.
"Say… what happened to your antlers?" Leman said with a hint of concern. Admu looked up in surprise.
"Oh! They must have fallen out during the fight… well I guess that means I've outgrown them." She said, her face glowing with a warm smile. Then her nose twitched, and without warning she sneezed. The top of her head erupted in an explosion of green-blue flame, revealing an even larger set of horns than the ones she had sported before. "AH!" she shouted in surprise.
"They grew back already?" Leman said, slightly taken aback. Suddenly, Admu sneezed again, and the antlers disappeared in a similar burst of cerulean fire. After recovering from the shock, she squinted her eyes and began to concentrate. In a slightly more subdued burst of flame the antlers returned, this time seemingly at her behest.
"Huh… that's pretty cool. I didn't know I could do that!" she said. "At least now I can fit through doors whenever I want to." she began to giggle, and Leman responded with laughter of his own. "Say, Mister Russ… what happened while I was asleep? Did you find that fruit you were looking for?" She said, tilting her head inquisitively.
"I'll… explain everything on the way back." Leman said, realizing the path he had chosen. At first, he had felt fear and doubt, worried that he had made the wrong decision. However, looking upon his companion's smiling, rosy face, he felt his fears dissolve and found his heart filled with a hope that he had not known in a very long time.