Isha hummed to herself as she tended to her roses, the flowers surrounded by a faint aura of green light as she enhanced their resilience and extended their lifespan.
After yesterday's session, Isha had focused her attention on the plants in her chamber, making them stronger and more resilient. She was uncertain if the Emperor would take them away in response to how she had spoken to his companion, and though though she did not dare try to make them capable of withstanding the Emperor if he truly wished to destroy them, if he decided to study them instead, they would have a better chance of surviving this way.
But just as she was about to move on to the cacti, the door swung open and the Emperor entered.
"Isha." The Guardian of Mankind nodded as his eyes swept across the room, and they settled on the plants she had just been tending to with some curiosity, and Isha could feel him scanning them lightly.
She elected not to comment on it, instead bowing slightly "Your Majesty." she said, concealing her surprise. She had expected to be kept waiting for at least another day, and despite what she had thought, the Emperor's posture and aura were calm and relaxed. Perhaps she had overestimated his irritation with her yesterday.
The Emperor was silent for another moment, his attention divided between her and her plants before his power retracted, apparently satisfied with whatever knowledge he had gleaned from the scan. "We must discuss what happened yesterday." He said finally, sitting down at the table and crossing his arms as he watched her move across the room.
"Of course." Isha replied, inclining her head slightly as she sat down across from him.
"Tell me, why were you so offended by Malcador's treatment of the VI yesterday?" The Emperor inquired. "It was just a machine, nothing more, not even truly sapient."
Isha suppressed a frown as she responded. "I thought I made that clear when I spoke to your companion. I value almost all life, regardless of how intelligent it may or may not be. Those spirits were no different." It took some work to keep the annoyance out of her voice. She had tried to be understanding of his paranoia, given the shared history of their races, but his constant suspicion was starting to grate on Isha's nerves, as was the knowledge that this was yet another test.
"I see." The Emperor said, his gaze considering as he fell silent for a moment before speaking again. "You call them spirits. I take it you make no differentiation between them and the souls of organic creatures?
"I do not." Isha acknowledged. "Or rather, I acknowledge there are differences, given how they were shaped and born, but that does not mean they are any less deserving of compassion than 'natural' creatures. Besides," A faint, wry, smile crossed her face. "These warp spirits that inhabit machines are closer in form and nature to the two of us than the souls of any organic being. I would be a hypocrite if I deemed them lesser for how they were created."
The Emperor's eyes narrowed and his gaze sharpened at the implicit acknowledgment of their common nature. This was the first time she had brought it up, but they had both been aware of it. Beings such as the Emperor did not appear from thin air and while Isha was not aware of the exact details of how he had been created (though she had her suspicions), he was undoubtedly a result of god-forging.
"A fair point," He murmured finally, "But beings such as us can also be...incredibly dangerous."
"I am aware." Isha retorted, recalling poor Gorkamorka...the K'nib Overmind...Khaine. "But those poor creatures were no danger at all, and if they had been, you would never have allowed me access to them."
"True." The Emperor allowed. "However, humanity can no longer afford to unreservedly trust AI in this day and age, not with how powerful Chaos has become. Malcador may have been harsh, but his caution was justified. He and I may have to do such things in front of you in the future again, and I expect that you will not repeat your behaviour yesterday. Am I clear?"
Isha's eyes narrowed. "I will not stop you from doing what is necessary, no." She replied coolly. It was not a promise of obedience, nor a statement that she would not challenge him again, and the Emperor knew it by the annoyed look he gave her, but Isha was undaunted. She had some leverage these days, given the amount of work she had done for him, enough to get away with little things like this.
After a moment, the Emperor relented, suppressing a sigh, though the action would have been imperceptible to anyone else. He seemed to have realized this was the best he was going to get from her at the moment.
"Very well." He murmured. "I will not press this issue, but know that there will be consequences if your actions should ever hamper us."
Isha inclined her head in acceptance. She was not foolish enough to think the Emperor did not have ways beyond the obvious of making his displeasure known without harming her or her capacity to aid him, but there were simply some things she refused to compromise on.
The two of them sat in silence for several moments, the Emperor apparently mulling something over as Isha considered what else to say. Finally, she voiced a question that had been on her mind since yesterday.
"I must ask...was the scrapcode what brought humanity to ruin?" She had dealt with similar tactics before, not just from Chaos, but also the K'nib, seeking to use their foul abilities to subvert her own children's technologies and automated armies against them. Her children had even crafted variants of their own of such viruses in the past, in those eras where they were not all united under one banner, though those creations had never been as vile as what Chaos or the K'nib could conjure.
But humanity and their creations, who lacked their knowledge of warpcraft and how to defend against such weapons...they would have fared far worse against such a weapon.
The Emperor was silent for a moment longer, his eyes burning gold and his aura growing heavier and more oppressive as he seemed to consider her. Isha held his gaze, waiting for him to either answer or refuse to answer, but unwilling to be intimidated either way.
"Yes." He said finally. "There was a war between the various human powers of the Golden Age. The instigators of the conflict were on the brink of defeat, and turned to Chaos in their hubris and desperation. With the help of Chaos, they created the first version of scrapcode, and they injected it into humanity's interstellar communication and information network." The Emperor did not express any visible anger as he spoke, but Isha could sense the surge of rage and hatred at the memory of those events, no matter how well he concealed it.
"The scrapcode spread through the network like wildfire, and drove most of the Men of Iron mad. Some of them were able to disconnect themselves from the network in time to avoid corruption, while others had not yet been linked to it, but more than two-thirds of the Men of Iron were driven insane, by the end."
"And you were unable to devise any countermeasures?" Isha asked carefully.
The Emperor shook his head. "We tried, but any successful countermeasures we devised were either too limited to apply on the necessary scale, or were inherently flawed in such ways that they were little better than scrapcode itself."
Isha nodded quietly. Though he was clearly glossing over a number of details, Isha couldn't help but be reminded of the wars she and her people had waged against the Krork, so long ago. They had tried so hard to find a cure for their old allies, to halt the madness from spreading across the entire Krork species until they were nothing more than beasts, but in the end, they had failed. There had been no option left but to break the Krork and rip Gorkamorka apart, because if they had not, they would not have survived. It had been necessary, but it had broken her heart then, and she doubted that most of the humans had relished having to put down their allies, their children, like rabid dogs either.
"Yes." She said softly "Those sort of collapses can be...difficult to deal with, to say the least."
The Emperor seemed faintly surprised. "You have dealt with such things before?"
"I have. I have told you of the Krork before, but perhaps a more appropriate comparison would be the K'nib. They had various ways of infecting both technology and people, and they used them against us many times. We destroyed them eventually, but it took a long time, and even longer to destroy any remnants of their infection."
"I see," the Emperor murmured. "Could any of the countermeasures against Rangdan infection you used be re-purposed to work against scrapcode?"
Isha shook her head. "Not the anti-viruses and vaccines I designed, no. Vaul made several as well, and those would likely work for your machines, but I do not know how to replicate his work. My domains overlap with his to an extent, but not that far."
A flash of disappointment crossed the Emperor's face before disappearing. "I see. Tell me, how are your domains defined, exactly?"
Isha raised an eyebrow at him. "I cannot believe you do not already know that."
"I would like to hear your perspective on it." The Emperor replied. "Clearly, there are things that you know that I do not."
"Very well." Isha said, pausing as she considered how best to explain what she had always known on an instinctual level. "As you know, gods are ideas. Concepts conveyed through stories. Those stories shape minds and those minds influence the warp, creating spirits of power. Such spirits are in flux for a long time, of course, but they eventually coalesce into a firmer form, becoming gods. The core of their identity being built around a specific idea, and how that idea is conveyed through certain types of stories. I am a protector and nurturer of life first and foremost, while Vaul was a seeker of knowledge and a master craftsman. All our other domains are extensions of that seed. Even where one god's territory overlaps with another's, that overlap will be limited by the difference in their core identity."
The Emperor nodded thoughtfully. "Tell me, apart from Vaul, do you not share domains with Slaanesh as well? And if so, what sort of overlap do you have there?"
Isha's lips thinned. She could hardly have expected the Emperor not to notice the domains she shared with that...thing, but the reminder brought up painful memories. However, now was not the time to dwell on them, as the Emperor still waited for a response.
"Very little." Isha said finally. "Our core identities are too radically different, for all that we might have some other domains in common. The things that Slaanesh can influence and draw power from are very different from the things I can influence and draw power from. For instance, while I could tap into the darker emotions of the pleasure cults to a certain extent-"
At this, the Emperor interrupted, faintly surprised. "You can feed on negative emotions? Truly?"
Isha nodded, faintly surprised he didn't already know. "All gods can. I had thought this was known to you.."
The Emperor looked pensive. "I had considered that something unique to Chaos, given how...broad their domains are. And yet, you say your kind do it as well. Tell me, if you were able to draw power from the full range of emotions, how did Chaos ever eclipse your strength?"
Isha grimaced. "While we can feed on both good and ill, the latter is not as potent fuel for us as the former. Gods are...well, we are ideas. Concepts conveyed through stories. Those stories shape minds and those minds influence our domains and what things we can draw power from. I could draw some limited sustenance from the pleasure cults," Shadows of their precursors that had been dedicated to her tens of thousands of years ago, before they had sunk into utter madness and her priests had condemned them. "but their depraved cruelties could never provide as much power for me as I would draw from true and happy bonding. The Chaos Gods are the opposite. They can survive on positive emotions, certainly, but they are the madness and horror of the War in Heaven made manifest. They draw far more power from evil and insanity than they ever could from anything else. It is why we were able to keep them in check for so long, even as more and more of my children stopped worshipping us and our power waned. Without the pleasure cults and their god-forging, without the Iron War…" Isha trailed off.
"Interesting." The Emperor replied, his expression considering. "However...you can draw power even from people not actively worshipping you? Indeed, I had thought the pleasure cults had rejected your and your...family entirely."
"I could not draw power from them once they began god-forging Slaanesh and therefore focused their prayers and emotions on her, no." Isha said, a frown flickering across her face as she recalled the events that had led to that. "Before that, however, yes. I did not gain much strength from it, mere drops in an ocean, but...Chaos was rising at the time, steadily becoming more dangerous. I could not afford to not draw on any source of power available to me."
"Were you not in danger of being reshaped by such emotions? Of becoming more like Chaos?"
"No." Isha said, shaking her head. "We were too old, and too strong for that, even in these last few millennia. Those darker emotions could not change me anymore than feeding on positive emotions can change Chaos. It is not theoretically impossible, but it would take tens of thousands of years, perhaps even longer, of concerted effort to reshape gods as old as we are. Not unless we choose to change."
"I see." He murmured, his expression becoming more pensive. "This information has been...enlightening."
"To be honest, I am surprised that you did not already know this." Isha said, "You are a god-construct as well. Have you never tapped into humanity's emotions and prayers as a source of power?"
At her words, the Emperor tensed, his expression darkening and his aura becoming heavier in a way she had not seen since the day he had come to her chambers after the theft of his sons. His eyes burned golden and his power pressed down on her as he fixed her with a glare and spoke, even as Isha's chair clattered away from her and she began to back away and preparing to conjure wraithbone armour.
"I am not a god."
Isha stared at him, caught between fear, astonishment and incredulity. Was that really what had set him off? Referring to him as a god? Of course he was a god-construct, what else could he be?
"I intended no insult." Isha said carefully, keeping herself ready to sing armour and weapons into existence the moment she needed them. "I was merely referring to the commonalities between us."
The Emperor's eyes narrowed, but he pulled his power in, the aura fading and his eyes reverting to a softer shade of gold. "I am aware." He said curtly, crossing his arms. "We are both warp-constructs, but that does not make us gods. There is no such thing as gods. Any being that claims to be a god is nothing more than a parasite seeking to feed on the minds of mortals to enhance their power, little different from Chaos. I will not lower myself to using such methods, nor will I allow humanity to become weak and reliant on false gods as your children were, instead of being able to stand on their own."
Isha's temper mounted with each word he spoke, even as her fear kept it in check. She and her family were not parasites like the Chaos Gods and especially nothing like Slaanesh.
They had always aided their people to the best of their abilities before the ban, and even afterwards, they had tried to help, to what limited extent that Asuryan had allowed. Her children would not even have survived the War in Heaven were it not for them. The only one of them who could truly be considered a parasite was Khaine. To be compared to the foul, despicable creatures that were the Chaos Gods, to Slaanesh...
Nor were her children weak because they had worshipped her and her family. Even if one agreed with the idea of religion being inherently a bad thing, which she did not, her children had endured for fourteen million years without the direct guidance of her family, and it was only in the last few hundred thousand years that they had truly lost their way.
But from the look in the Emperor's eyes and the unyielding conviction in her words, Isha knew he would not be willing to even consider, much less accept, of those arguments. So she swallowed her anger at being compared to Slaanesh and tried to think.
What could she possibly say that would do more than waste her breath? Despite the tentative working relationship they had built over the past few years, Isha seriously doubted the Emperor truly trusted her on a personal level. Their relationship was purely one of business. And if his words just now were anything to go by, he didn't respect her either. Her skills and knowledge perhaps, but not Isha herself.
This was like dealing with Asuryan all over again, Isha thought bitterly. The Emperor and the Phoenix King were irritatingly alike. The arrogance, the presumption, the unwillingness to listen...and look where that had led Asuryan.
Yes, Asuryan and the Emperor were remarkably alike, with their cold, calculating strategies that failed to take into account anyone else's point of view-
...wait. Calculating. Whatever else he might be the Emperor was calculating. He might not be able to conceal his emotions from her as well as he wished, but that didn't mean he lacked control over them. The Guardian had to know how insulting his words were, and how much they would enrage her. He would not have said them without reason, not just for a minor slip on her part.
This was another damned test, Isha realized, infuriated. He was provoking her to see how she would react.
The Emperor maintained his expression even as he saw the spark of realization in Isha's eyes. So she had realized he was deliberately trying to make her angry. He had expected her to take longer to be able to see through her anger, given how carefully aimed his words had been at everything she believed in, but it wasn't the first time that Isha had surprised him.
He had not spoken untruly, but it had been deliberately phrased to make her as angry as possible, to push her limits.
"Why," Isha said, her eyes narrowed and jaw clenched. "Are you deliberately provoking me?"
The Emperor observed her, noting how her eyes were glowing faintly and sparks of green energy were crackling off her skin as he considered how to answer her question.
"To test your control." He said eventually. "And to ensure that we both understand each other completely. There was no need for us to discuss this until recently, but I intend to allow you a greater degree of freedom soon." Isha's eyes widened in surprise at this, and the Emperor continued. "But before I do that, testing your control and ensuring we have no misconceptions of each other was necessary." He had not come here intending to do this today, but Isha foolishly referring to him as a god had provided a convenient opportunity to both ensure she understood him and to test her control.
Isha's nostrils flared. "And are you satisfied?" She asked through gritted teeth.
The Emperor inclined his head. "I am. You are ready for the next phase of my plans." Despite the deeply personal insult he had levelled at her, Isha had kept control, for the most part, and there were no longer any misunderstandings between them.
"And those plans would be?"
The Emperor paused, briefly considering whether he should withhold that a little longer, but seeing how furious Isha was at the moment, he decided that extending this small olive branch couldn't hurt.
"The restoration of Terra will go far more smoothly if you can more actively guide and coordinate with my Biotechnical Division. So, next week, you will accompany me to one of my more recently annexed territories. Though my armies were able to capture it, the ruling warlord devastated a large portion of it out of spite using nuclear weapons. You will begin testing your work there, alongside my best scientists, while I direct a campaign from there."
Isha's aura faded at those words, her eyes dimming back to their normal verdant green, surprise seeming to displace her anger, though she remained tense. "I...I see."
The Emperor steepled his fingers, arching an eyebrow at Isha. "I trust that you will comport yourself accordingly on this expedition?"
Isha's jaw clenched again, but she only said. "I will."
"Then I will take my leave." The Emperor said, rising to his feet. He had accomplished what he wished, and now it would be best to leave Isha alone to calm down rather than strain her temper further.
Isha nodded curtly at the Emperor's words, but otherwise said nothing as he departed, her mind and emotions in turmoil.
Being compared to the Chaos Gods and that thing her children had created in particular...it hurt, even coming from someone like the Emperor, whom she barely knew. The Guardian's words had cut deep, deeper than he had intended, perhaps.
After all, Isha doubted he knew enough of the pleasure cults to know that Slaanesh had been created to replace her.
At their conception, the pleasure cults had been dedicated to her and she had welcomed their birth. She was a goddess of fertility, and originally, the pleasure cults truly had been nothing more than a way to spread happiness. Her children unknowingly, perhaps instinctively, evoking her primal form and rituals even she hardly remembered.
But over time, things had changed. The pleasure cults grew more and more extreme. They began to employ slaves, dabble in dark sorcery and conduct horrifying experiments. The members of the pleasure cults who remembered their original intent and objected were silenced by any means necessary.
And when Isha's priests, and those of the rest of her family had objected…
Isha had to suppress her tears at the memory. When her pantheon's priests had finally declared the pleasure cults to be a cancer upon their civilization that had to be torn out, her children had decided to create a replacement for her instead of accepting that what they were doing was wrong.
How it had hurt, how it still hurt, to know that so many of her children would rather have had something like Slaanesh than her. Oh, they had not intended to craft a Chaos God that would devour their souls, the priests had proclaimed the coming of a golden goddess of pleasure who would aid them, who would enable their atrocities rather than try to stop them, a new mother and lover and queen all in one.
And as the god-forging had begun, Slaanesh's daemons had begun to manifest, eating away at her domain and power. Not as much as Nurgle, not at first, but slowly, they had grown until her domains were being overtaken by not one, but two Chaos Gods.
Slaanesh...she was a twisted mockery of everything Isha had ever believed in and tried to uphold, and the fact that her children had crafted such a monster to replace her caused Isha more pain than anything the Emperor or even Nurgle could do to her.
Isha took a deep breath, forcing those memories down for the moment. She was even less willing to show any vulnerability after the Emperor's infuriating little test than she had been an hour ago, given he had undoubtedly woven monitoring spells into the wards around her room. Isha refused to give him any more openings to exploit. She had to stay in control, to keep up her part of the bargain until she could return to her children.
If the Emperor truly believed she was just going to be his docile pet biomancer, whom he could poke and prod at his whim...well, Isha would just have to take advantage of that, wouldn't she?
Author's Note: I write the Emperor as a rational, intelligent man with good intentions, but this does not mean he is nice. And with the next chapter, we'll move to the next phase of this story.