It was truly a palace, a place where her Lord, like a true ruler, could enjoy all his pleasures and where he was adored and worshiped like a god.
Because this place was not empty, far from it, in her Lord's quarters there was a whole host of beautiful and usually quite young women of every possible ethnicity. The girls took care of all the chores that were necessary for such a large household, but they also sang, played instruments, wrote poems, and, finally, created paintings and other works of art that could be seen on the walls or plinths.
All, of course, were dedicated to the person of their Lord.
There were several butlers in the household who managed the work of the servants, but they all ultimately answered to Magdalene, whom they called First Favorite Magdalene.
For a few days, Anahitah's only task was, as the First Favorite put it, 'to get better. She underwent physiotherapy sessions under Magdalene's supervision, exercised at the gym, and ate huge amounts of red meat.
"I've never seen so much red meat at once in my life."
Anahitah eventually had to learn to use crutches, but she was never by herself; whenever she participated in exercises or any other activity, she was always with a large group of girls who were young adults like her or late teens.
"By Tzeentch, I hope these girls are of legal age, at least according to their cultures; some come from feudal or even completely feral societies, where a young female is definitely considered a grown woman from the moment of her first bleeding. I beg of you, Changer of Ways, for my Lord not to be a pedophile!"
Despite being of a similar or at least similar age to most of the women, Anahitah was definitely taller than them. The young astropath was quite surprised to notice on the first day that she was as tall as Magdalene herself.
"As a void born, I've always been tall for a woman, at least compared to people raised in standard gravity, but all this surgery has added a few good inches to my body!"
Anahitah, however, was still physically weaker than even the much smaller girls, which was clear after their joint exercises in the gym, but Magdalene assured her that her body had the right potential, and if the Lord wished it, the young mutant could be just as strong, if not stronger than her.
Anahitah sincerely and hopefully prayed to Tzeentch that the Lord would not wish it. Magdalene was beautiful in her own way and was the epitome of what Anahitah's younger brothers called a milf, but the mutant herself preferred never to be as ripped as this older woman.
"I would rather be a princess type, not a warrior queen type."
All the women seemed to be from the Imperium, and the mutant girl feared ostracism simply because of her bird foot.
However, to her surprise, Anahitah was not the only Abhuman in the group!
"So... you are actually a person or a pet, hmm...?" heard Anahitah from behind her back one day while she was exercising on one of the machines at the gym.
The young astropath turned around, expecting to see some 'Aryan' brats, but instead, she saw a graceful feminine silhouette wearing only a very modest bikini. The woman's basically naked body was lightly covered with short white fur. Her face had cat-like eyes and ears, and her cheeky smile showed sharp white fangs.
"Or she's food!" another voice spoke, and after a while another feline, this time with black fur, appeared before Anahitah's eyes. "It looks like someone managed to bite off this chicken's leg, haha," she added in a playful voice.
The first white-furred cat-woman bristled a bit and jumped towards her black-furred companion with incredible grace; it looked like some kind of circus acrobatics show.
"Oy, that was fucking rude!" The white she-cat scolded the black one and then turned to Anahitah, who was slightly speechless about the whole situation.
"Sorry, bird, she was just joking." The white-furred woman was embarrassed for her friend.
As the young astropath strengthened her body, she also began to slowly flex her mind and gently experiment with her powers. She just wanted to check if she could still do it; she couldn't help herself. For a psyker not to use her gifts was like forbidding a person to open her eyes; it was only a matter of time until he tried. She thought that she would only read the emotions of people around her, not thoughts, nothing extraordinary. Therefore, from the very beginning of this confrontation, Anahitah knew that none of the furry women was her enemy.
"They are... hopeful? happy?"
"You are Felinids, Homo sapiens hirsutus, from the planet Carlos McConell, right?" Anahitah asked.
"Wow! Our girl has the eyes of a hawk and the wisdom of an owl!" The black she-cat laughed with unconcealed admiration.
"That she has," the white-furred female agreed and then extended her hand to Anahitah, which the young astropath took carefully so as not to cut herself with the cat-like sharp claws.
"I am Lazy Coil, formerly a sergeant in the 6th Felinids's Reconnaissance Regiment; currently, Lazy the Cat, a part-time fuck toy and a full-time pet of this house. Call me Lazy."
"This black-hide scum is Quick Cable, formerly private first class in the 6th Felinids's Reconnaissance Regiment and my eternal slave, currently Quick, part-time cumdupster and rat-catcher, full-time my eternal slave."
"Fuck off, sarge!" Quick moaned.
"Silence, slave," Lazy replied nonchalantly.
Anahitah smiled.
"Nice to meet you both. I'm Anahitah of the Muhammad clan, formerly an astropath...
"Whoa! So you're a psyker!" Lazy burst out loud, causing the entire gym that was already watching them to freeze even more.
Anahitah expected a panic attack from the Imperials, but it turned out that she gave them too little credit.
"All these women have their own turbulent tales about how they got here, and now that they are all concubines of the true Astarte Lord, I guess the mere sight of a psyker won't make them hysterical anymore."
Lazy smiled widely, showing her sharp teeth.
"Oh, we all know who you are, my dear bird; you are Favorite Anahitah, an Abhuman Favorite! The Master turned you into a big girl like Mama Magdalene."
"I'm not a deaf old woman yet, Lazy," Magdalene said in an unimpressed tone from behind the white-furred woman, and she grabbed Lazy by the neck in exactly the same way as you catch cats. Strangely enough, Felinid's reaction was similar to that of an ordinary cat, and the furred female almost hung limply in the large woman's firm hold. However, just like with the cat, this grip did not seem to cause her any pain but only made her helpless.
"Oh Mama, am I in trouble?" Lazy asked meekly.
Magdalene sighed.
"Lazy Coil, you're an intelligent military woman, not some retarded savage chasing pigeons up a tree. I know He likes it, but you really don't have to stay in character when He's not here; He doesn't require it, so neither do I."
Magdalene said and then released Lazy from the compromising grip. The furry woman rubbed her neck.
"That said..." Magdalene continued, "in the Lord's house, 'pets' don't wear clothes; we talked about it Lazy, you can wear as much jewelry as you want, but not clothes."
"Favorite Magdalene, please... at least panties, at least until He wakes up. I've been playing this act for years, which has made Him very pleased. I really work my furry ass off, and you know it, but I need these days in any clothes because I'll really forget that I'm a person. You know that I am; I still am a person, right?"
Magdalene thought for a moment, looked briefly at Anahitah, and then finally nodded without a word.
"Oh, thanks, Mama Magdalene! You're the best!" Lazy happily responded and then started rubbing against the larger woman like a real cat. Magdalene huffed and waved her hand.
"Alright, alright, keep Anahitah company; obey her but advise her; I have to examine the Lord's meals..." Having said this, Magdalene left the gym.
For some time, Anahitah continued her exercise sets while talking to her new friends.
"Is it very degrading? playing a cat?" Anahitah asked shyly when she couldn't contain herself anymore.
Lazy waved her hand.
"At first, it was a bit weird; you know, I was at a military school before I joined the Guard, and I also took various courses. I saw war and commanded people, and suddenly I'm just running around the palace with a bare ass or lying on golden pillows eating chocolate. But if you think about it logically, I'd have to be brain-dead to ever want to leave this place; it's paradise!" The Felinid confessed.
Anahitah nodded and then took a deep breath, running her hands through her hair, which, even though it was tied in a braid, fell on her face during the exercises.
"I think you're right; you all seem to be treated well, and so am I; all things considered, I can't complain about anything," Anahitah blurted out honestly, feeling more at ease with someone who acted and looked more of her age, and on top of that, like her, was an Abhuman.
"It just looks... I mean, I wanted to say..." Anahitah started, but Lazy put a paw on her shoulder.
"This is exactly what it looks like; it's a harem, and we're all fuck toys. Some of us more, some of us less, some have also other duties on the ship, while others never leave this place. There's sex and all this blood-kink thing," said the furry woman showing the cannula on her wrist, "but this is a comfortable and safe life, and there is no one to judge you, hey! You can even say with a clear conscience that this is how you serve the Emperor."
Anahitah ignored the last mention; she introduced herself as an astropath, and so far both her mutation and the fact of being a psyker were received better than she expected, but the girl preferred not to tempt fate too much.
Anahitah was an average-skilled psyker at best, where 'average-skilled' only meant that she was able to perform the work of an astropath in her Chaos fleet. As a psyker, the girl always felt something peeping into her soul. When she was just a toddler, her family was shielding her essence from the warp, hiding it from the prying Neverborns in the same way modest clothing hides a young girl's body from old perverts. As soon as Anahitah could, her parents taught her to pray to Tzeentch for protection. Tzeentch was her god.
So, when Anahitah did her work when she was opening up to the warp and feeling the Neverborns' "gaze" on her, she knew that Tzeentch himself was also watching her and that this protected her from minor, 'uninvited guests.'
That's how she imagined it; that's what she hoped.
But Anahitah was just a small grain of sand.
"Would I even be able to be an astropath without Tzeentch's intercession? Let's say that I was born a psyker of the same power but as a baseline human somewhere in the Imperium. If one of these terrifying Black Ships took me away, would I pass the sanctioning? or would I become just food for the Corpse Emperor?"
As the young mutant began to use her powers again, she was wondering more than ever about the implications.
"What if I offend the Changer of Ways in some way? What if he withdraws his protection over my soul? What if he allows me to be consumed by the rot of Nurgle? The beasts of Khorne? or the monsters of Slanesh? No, the Architect of Fate would never give up the soul that is his willingly, but his own demon could still eat me."
In her new Lord's palace, no one but her was a psyker, but Anahitah felt the Neverborns watching almost everyone in the household with great appetite. And the young astropath felt it clearly because all these demons were watching everything through her!
And it wasn't just the demons of Tzeentch; Anahitah felt the servants of other gods jostling in line for her senses.
And she couldn't do anything about it.
"I wouldn't survive this sanctioning; the Corpse God would eat me," the girl realized, and she thought she heard some demons start laughing.
So far, the Weaver of Destinies was clearly still protecting her, but Anahitah could still hear the whispers of other forces. This new kind of 'popularity' was hard for Anahitah to get used to; until recently, even servants of Tzeentch had never contacted her so directly; she was just no one special.
"Well, no one still talks to me; I don't have conversations in my head; there are just these... 'ideas' that I know are not mine," Anahitah clarified herself.
Even after being transferred to live alone outside her family ship, Anahitah led a reserved life. The only real stimulant was studying and reading. She didn't do anything in excess, and she certainly didn't eat too much. She thought about how much a visit to the dentist would cost her, about the poor inhabitants of the lower decks, and about the slaves who had nothing to eat because the better-off crew members ate too much. However, the woman now indulged in completely uncontrolled gluttony from the moment she arrived at her new master's estate. Anahitah hoped that Magdalene would somehow control her diet, but her 'guardian' even encouraged her to eat more, claiming that her entire body was bigger now and needed to build up, especially since the girl also exercised at the gym.
"There are so many new tastes and aromas. There are so many new and diverse people from such different planets and cultures, so many new perspectives and topics, and so many new accents of Low Gothic to experience. By the Pantheon, so many new exercises! Before, I only did a little Theentchian yoga, but now I'm doing weights! I! I'm doing weights! I am strong, and I can be strong! so many sensations!"
Anahitah was not naive enough to not understand that the Prince of Pleasure was tempting her.
"By the Pantheon, this whole place..."
Shortly after her attempts at reading emotions, the warp beings made her hear the thoughts of those around her completely at will. She didn't control it, she was too weak to control it. Her uninteresting life as an astropath suddenly became very interesting to the Neverborns, too interesting to be shielded from them by Tzeentch's protection, because it was the protection that the uninteresting, average astropath had prayed for. She gave little and received little because she needed little.
But now she could use more...
The young psyker noticed with increasing discomfort that she couldn't cope with 'not listening' to the thoughts of those around her.
Anahitah sensed the thoughts of the teenager, who was stealing glances at her. The girl was clutching tightly in her hand the pendant of some Imperial 'saint' who died a 'martyr' death. Anahitah really wasn't interested in this girl's life, but the young astropath was too weak a psyker to not listen when the Neverborns wanted her to hear it.
So this Imperial girl came from a feudal world, which turned out to be the Necron's tomb world. A year ago, she was saved by the "Angel of the God Emperor," who took her to his heavenly palace, where she was now.
The "Angel" made her one of his women. The girl felt very bad about it because she didn't consider herself worthy; she told him so many times, but he still made her his woman, again and again. Her body was in pain because her body saw that she was not worthy.
"Oh, Tzeentch, let me not know this..." Anahitah prayed, but the young Imperial's thoughts kept flowing into her head.
The girl prayed to the Emperor, lamenting that she was not worthy to be the Angel's woman, and he kept making her his woman until her whole body was in great pain.
The girl was surprised that the newly arrived Anahitah had a chicken leg.
"By the Pantheon is not a chicken leg, you primitive brat!" Anahitah thought, a bit irritated
The girl thought that only evil monsters had chicken legs, but it was Angel's home in paradise, so maybe it's not strange that someone who lives in heaven has bird legs?
When the girl heard that Anahitah was a psyker, she became very scared. That's why she was now clutching the pendant with the image of the Imperial martyr so tightly; it was supposed to protect her from the witch.
But... the girl thought that since the witch was in Angel's heavenly house, maybe she was not an evil witch but a good fairy, like the one who took her teeth when she was little and gave her a copper coin with which she bought a donut!
And since Anahitah is a good fairy, maybe she will tell her how to become worthy of being Angel's woman and make her body stop hurting.
"What nonsense..." Anahitah said in her mind and turned to Lazy, trying to forget as quickly as possible the young girl's thoughts that she hadn't even asked anyone about!
"A blood-kink thing?" asked the young astropath, looking at her hands, both of which had cannulas on them. The Bird Mutant looked around more carefully at the inhabitants of the palace that were in sight; many of them had similar cannulas, at least, although none seemed to have two. Some still had none at all.
"Yes, the master drinks blood; he drinks a lot of it. Anyway... you'll see if you don't know already. He drinks from us too; he can, well, it's very erotic; he gets to know us by drinking our blood. That's why sex is so good; he really knows us."
Lazy bit her lip.
"Listen, I know how it sounds, but believe me, Anahitah, this is not heretical or anything; for the Emperor's sake, he is His Angel. It's very intimate, and simply, well, simply, it's a chance for us to do something for him.
Anahitah smiled politely and nodded, keeping her thoughts to herself.
"Dear Tzeentch, please make sure my Lord is not corrupted by Khorne. Terrible Khorne, don't be angry with me; I'm just a weak woman, and I'm afraid. And of course, I will give blood. Please don't hurt me; please don't let your demons explode my head. Clearly, there is already a lot of blood of weak women being spilled here. Dear Tzeentch, please don't make cruel jokes. I'm like 99% sure it isn't a secretive Nurgle cult, but even that one percent fills me with fear. Entropic Nurgle I can sense your demons looking at Magdalene; just thinking about it makes me very depressed. Please don't explode my head. Cruel Slanesh... I pray to Tzeentch, but I really don't have a problem with gluttony; I think that I actually like it quite a lot, to be honest. I don't know much about sex, or any kinks, really, but I think this will change soon. I'm young, I have my whole life ahead of me, and I'm ready for a bit of excess, of course, if this is what my husb... I mean, my Lord wants. Please, just not any terrible things, like torturing or rape, or, I don't really know, like this Dark Eldar stuff. Dear Tzeentch, I am not going Undivided on you, dear Lord of Change; there are just a lot of changes in my life!"
After this prayer to Tzeentch and 'not-prayer' to other powers, no demon opened a warp portal in the young astropath's head and tore apart her body and soul.
At least for now.
Anahitah spent the next few hours in the company of the other girls, mostly talking to Lazy and Quick. The Bird Mutant was eating another chocolate bar when Magdalene found her
"The Lord is awake; he wants you in his bed," she said in a calm voice.
Anahitah swallowed.
"Hey, it'll be ok; once you try Astarte, this is it," Quick assured sincerely and enthusiastically.
"It'll be her first time, stupid," Lazy reminded her.
"Om... well... fuck it, you will be ruined for a mere mortal cock, you lucky chick!"
"You're not helping, Quick," Lazy scolded before looking at Anahitah reassuringly.
"You got this," she assured.
Anahitah nodded uncertainly and allowed Magdalene to help her get up. The girl took her crutches.
There were many bedrooms in the Lord's palace—many of his bedrooms. This particular one was near the so-called tomb chamber, which the Lord had not left for the past few days.
As far as Anahitah could understand, it was a place where her Lord meditated, cleared his mind, or something like that. Magdalene was silent on this matter, and the other women were only able to give such explanations.
Regardless of the nomenclature, this part of the palace was as elegant as any other. Magdalene said goodbye to the young astropath at the bronze bedroom door, which she closed behind her.
The round room looked more like an amphitheater than a bedroom. In the middle, as if on a stage, was a huge bed on which a dozen or so people could lie comfortably.
In the center, lazily leaning on one side, lay an Angel.
When Anahitah first saw his face back on the ship that the Dark Eldars had captured, she believed it would be her last sight before dying. Later, ever since she woke up onboard the Ichorous, the woman had been having nightmares about him.
Now she saw him again, she was terribly afraid, but again, she couldn't deny his absolute beauty.
Anahitah had seen several Night Lords from a distance, more on video. These Astartes were terrifying, but many were also, in an evil way, handsome.
The Angel looking at her now wasn't handsome; he was beautiful.
His huge body was intimidating, but his perfect proportionality was unquestionable. His porcelain face of a young man was without a trace of blemish, his luxuriant golden curls fell over his broad shoulders, his blue eyes sparkled like distant stars. If there was ever an 'Aryan' God somewhere in the warp, this was his son.
The man looked straight at her, resting his chin on his hand. Anahitah, with the door already closed behind her, trembled as she stood on her crutch.
Her owner's thoughts assaulted her senses. Anahitah did not plan to read his mind at that moment; some Neverborn must have 'helped' her; the woman was not prepared for the information she overheard:
"It's a fucking shame that she is missing another funny foot; it would be more fun to play with two of them. She could then try to push me away with them while I'm about to fuck her. Such a shame. With one, it will be a bit pathetic. Pathetic is also nice, but it's probably not the same... hmm. Oh well, I'll get her a good prosthetic; it'll take time, and it'll cost the hell out of me, but if she wants it, she will be able to scratch me with it, even until I bleed. Fuck, this is going to be awesome! Yes, I have to do it!... hmmm, maybe I'll cut off her fingers and order prosthetics with claws? It'll cost even more, but damn, it could be really cool. Why the fuck didn't I think of that before I put so much work into her body?"