New chapter. As always, the next two chapters are up on my P-a-t-r-e-o-n, here: h*t*t*p*s :/ w*w*w . p*a*t*r*e*o*n user - ? - u = 52718582 (remove the spaces and stars)
The instant she was in the privacy of her chambers, Isha erected a veil of privacy to ensure she would not be interrupted. Then she sank into her bed and buried her head in her hands as she began to weep, her tears dripping onto the floor and crystallizing into dreamstones.
Vaul, oh…Vaul. Her poor, loyal brother. Her oldest companion and twin, who had given everything to free her and Kurnous from eternal torment when everyone else had stood aside.
And how had she repaid him? She had abandoned him, left him to rot in Khaine's clutches for so long.
Oh, there were a million excuses and rationalizations she had told herself over the ages. There was nothing she could do, she lacked the power to defy Asuryan and Khaine, the only thing that trying to free Vaul would accomplish was seeing herself imprisoned once more, the backlash of any attempt to free her brother would have harmed not just her but also Kurnous and Lileath…
They might even be true.
But none of them changed the fact that she had abandoned Vaul to an eternity of agony and suffering. She was Isha, goddess of family, goddess of rebels. But she had betrayed her family, and she had never dared to truly rebel for fear of reprisal.
Goddess of cowardice, goddess of tears, goddess of helplessness…perhaps those were more appropriate titles for her.
And the rest of what Nurgle had said cut deeply as well. How was she going to defeat Chaos? Was there any way she could? She wasn't even certain she would ever be able to build a proper alliance with the Emperor, and even if she did…how were they going to defeat the Ruinous Powers? Their conceptual advantages only went so far, they wouldn't be enough to overcome the sheer power that the Four wielded.
Not to mention her own weakness to Slaanesh. Against a few minor Daemons, it might not matter much, but against a cadre of Greater Daemons? Or the Exalted? If the Emperor was not there to protect her, then she would fall, without a doubt.
In the end, Isha could not see a future for herself where she was ever truly free and triumphant. At best, she was going to be the Emperor's servant for the rest of eternity, nothing more than an aide to the man fighting an endless war.
At worst, she would be captured by Chaos, and suffer forever.
This was why Nurgle wanted her so badly, she supposed. He had seen the despair in her heart, that she had tried to bury and ignore for so long, and it attracted him.
Damn him. Damn him for doing this to her, for pulling all her fears and regrets to the surface.
What was she going to do?
For several minutes, Isha simply stayed there, weeping uncontrollably into her hands, until she was interrupted by an awkward knock on her door.
Isha's head snapped up, staring at the door.
It was the Emperor, she realized with a start. She had known the veil would not conceal anything from him, but she had also not thought he would interrupt her.
Some new problem had arisen, perhaps. Or perhaps he wanted her to get back to work on healing the city.
Rising to her feet, Isha erased all traces of her grief, conjuring a wraithbone chest with a wave of her hand and directing the dreamstones into it.
Opening the door once she had sealed the chest and shoved it into a corner of the room, she managed a smile as best as she could as the Emperor. "Your Majesty. Is there anything you require?"
"I, ah," The Emperor said, his tone almost awkward, his eyes searching her face. "I just wanted to ask…how are you feeling?"
For a moment, Isha was genuinely surprised but she quickly masked it. No doubt the Emperor was merely concerned whether or not she would be able to fulfil her tasks.
"I am well," She said smoothly. "Forgive my brief moment of weakness, Nurgle…startled me."
"Are you certain?" He asked, watching her closely. "It is…acceptable if you are feeling unwell."
"I am fine," Isha assured him, feeling uncomfortable. She wasn't sure if his concern was genuine or merely a front, but in any case, she was not ready to discuss her turmoil and guilt with the Emperor.
Searching for a way to change the subject, Isha remembered their previous conversation. It would still bring up painful memories, but ones less so than discussing her breakdown.
"Ah, yes, I remember you wanted to know about the prison that Vaul built on Mars for the shard of the Void Dragon?"
The Emperor's eyes flickered with interest. "Yes," He said quickly, leaning forward. "What led to the construction of the prison? Why here, in the Solar System? How did the shard escape the Necrons?"
"Of the last question, I am not certain," Isha admitted, crossing her arms. "We wondered often, but we were never sure where exactly it came from. Did it escape from a Tomb World caught in the crossfire of our wars with the Krork? Or the Rangdan? Did it escape on its own? Did it simply flee and avoid capture by the Necrons when the C'tan were first shattered? We could never determine the truth of the matter."
The Emperor frowned. "Fair enough, I suppose. What of the rest?"
Isha sighed wearily, memories of an old war surfacing to her mind. "To begin with, Your Majesty, you must understand that the most dangerous thing about the Void Dragon was not its raw power. It was among the mightiest of the C'tan, to be sure, but what truly made it so dangerous was its mind. Many of the weapons the Yngir released during the War in Heaven, the damage they inflicted on reality…they were the Dragon's work, as it studied the Old Ones and the Aethyr itself, and crafted weapons to annihilate us utterly."
"The shard…it was almost as clever as its forebear. It knew that it lacked the strength to challenge us directly, without the power of its whole self. Nor could it reunify with its other parts, for attempting to free them might stir the Necrons from their slumber. Perhaps even bring the Silent King back to the galaxy. And so, it turned to other avenues."
"What other avenues?" The Emperor asked, unease creeping into his tone.
"Time manipulation," Isha smiled thinly. "It wished to return to the War in Heaven, merge with its past self and prevent the Necron rebellion before it even began. And thus, the Yngir would reign over the stars forever."
The Emperor choked, his eyes uncharacteristically wide. "It did not succeed, I take it." The Emperor said, recomposing himself after a moment. "Given that, we are still here, and you and your family trapped it."
"Indeed it did not," Isha nodded. "Temporal manipulation was a frequent weapon of both sides during the war, and one of the major reasons the damage to reality was so severe. After the Necrons betrayed the Yngir and shattered them, they still had to secure their victory. Led by Orikan the Diviner, the Necron chronomancers enacted a great ritual to lock the War in Heaven onto a single path, one timeline overriding all the others. Furthermore, the timelock would seal away many of the War's horrors, unable to attack other eras."
"The Dragon shard sought to undo the timelock, didn't it?" The Emperor deduced, his gaze sharpening.
Isha laughed mirthlessly. "Indeed it did. I am not certain how long it took. The…Chronal Calamity, as would be the closest translation in your language, occurred several million years after The War ended. We had subdued the Krork and Rangdan by then, and we were at peace. We had no inkling that a shard of the Dragon was free, much less what it was working towards."
Isha's gaze became distant as she recalled those old memories. "The Dragon failed to undo the timelock completely, but it did create a crack. A crack large enough for the horrors from the final days of the War to begin bleeding out. The Dragonforged, the Tyrant Stars, the Enslaver Plague…and worst of all, the other timelines attempting to reassert themselves, fragments and echoes of abominations that never were yet could have been emerging from the cracks."
She shuddered at the memories of reality itself writhing and breaking and screaming.
"It was the worst catastrophe the galaxy had seen since the Krork. We defeated the monsters and repaired the lock with the aid of Orikan, but the cost was…tremendous. My children were shattered, our pantheon had been winnowed once again, and new Daemon Kings ran rampant once more, spawned by the fresh turmoil in the Warp…it took us a long time to rebuild once more, nearly as long as it had taken after the War itself. And in the aftermath, Vaul located the Dragon shard and subdued it, before imprisoning it upon Mars."
"As for why this planet…" Isha smiled a little wryly. "This was tens of millions of years ago, Your Majesty. Vaul selected Mars simply because it was out of the way, distant from any galactic civilization and with no sentient races nearby. Here, no one was likely to stumble upon it and if it did, he had alert systems in place."
For several moments, there was silence, as the Emperor absorbed her explanation, visibly mulling it over.
"I see," He said finally. "You have given me much to think about. It is…frightening to consider what a mere shard is truly capable of, and I am more relieved than ever that I successfully imprisoned it once more in my youth."
"As are we all," Isha inclined her head. "You saved the galaxy that day, Your Majesty. My family and I could not intervene because of Asuryan's Edict, and my children were utterly lost in their own hedonism. Perhaps the Necrons might have intervened, but that cannot be certain. The galaxy would not have survived another Chronal Calamity if the shard had escaped to try and open the timelock once more."
"Yes," The Emperor said, rubbing a hand across his face. "...has anyone else ever attempted such a thing? The Chaos Gods? The Necrons themselves?"
"To my knowledge, no. I do not believe the Ruinous Powers even possess the knowledge to attempt an opening of the timelock. Perhaps Tzeentch alone might, but if he does, he has never been quite so foolish. The Necrons…if any of the chronomancers dared, they would not survive long. Orikan the Diviner has no tolerance for such fools."
"You know him well?" The Emperor asked, his eyebrows rising.
"In a way," Isha acknowledged, frowning at the memory of the arrogant chronomancer. "He has both ally and enemy to us over the ages. To say I know him well would be an exaggeration, but I am certain he has no desire to see such a thing happen again and would never permit any of his inferiors to do so. None of the other Necrons can match his mastery of time. They would never succeed in any such efforts before he caught them."
The Emperor nodded slowly. "That is good, I suppose. Still, the idea that it is even possible is…troubling, to say the least."
Isha smiled sardonically. "There are many such troubling possibilities in the galaxy, Your Majesty. As much as I wish there were not."
At least she had distracted him from his inquiries about her breakdown.
"In any case, unless you have any further questions, I should return to work on healing the city, Your Majesty?"
"Ah, yes, you should." The Emperor said. "I have made the announcement to the city in any case, so you may do as you please. If you wish to distribute food and medicines to the populace, speak to Juno, she will handle it."
"Understood."
The Emperor watched Isha fly back towards the city from the deck of his vessel, his gaze pensive.
The knowledge she had confided him in was the answer to many questions he had thought he would never see answered. They also raised other, more troubling questions, for the Emperor knew of at least one other entity, an old enemy, who might have the knowledge and ability to crack upon the timelock.
The Emperor could only hope that his old enemy, like Tzeentch, would know better than to even try.
But all that aside, it had not escaped his notice that Isha had sought to distract him from her pain by telling him all this. He had allowed it because he had not known what else to say, what might bring her comfort instead of making her feel worse.
But even now, seeing Isha utterly defeated, in tears as her despair overwhelmed her, it was a truly disconcerting image.
He would have liked to say his concern was rooted solely in how this might impact Isha's effectiveness in aiding him, but…that would be a lie, wouldn't it?
And he wasn't sure how to feel about that.