– Sometimes –
– Past ? Present ? Future ? -
Somewhere -Elena opened her eyes into the face of a dead woman.
" My apologies, Your Ladyship", she stuttered with difficulty. " I seem to have fallen asleep on top of you."
" Oh, this is nothing. You are most welcome, child", said the dead woman's voice inside her mind. " Use my head as your cushion. Lay down to rest. You will feel better in the morning. "
" Thank you, Your Ladyship ", replied Elena, resting her head over the cold body and closing her eyes for a second.
She was disturbed by something or someone. A weight over her body, covering her. Something made her bobble her head, dislodging her from her comfortable cushion. She couldn't feel her legs anymore. Couldn't feel anything anymore.
She inhaled sharply, opening her eyes again.
" Theodora ! Listen to me - you must not leave the bridge," she pleaded.
Theodora was seated on the dead woman's body now, extending her legs cautiously. " I do not take orders from you, girl", replied Theodora with annoyance.
" The lens won't save you", murmured Elena. " Unless you go through it ? "
Something was heaving down on her, pressing her down over the other corpses. Their hands on her naked, mutilated body made her go crazy. She couldn't stand them anymore.
" Get off me !" she lashed out with her psykana, trying to light up a fire, to set them ablaze. It was hard to fight the troublesome daemons with only one arm left. She found her energy was so low that she barely could hope to light up a lho-stick if she wanted to. She wriggled her way through, succeeding in sliding out of the weight of half a dozen other bodies that had fallen to the top of the pile. She crawled her way through, swimming in the fluids, the bones, until she found a more comfortable spot to sleep.
" From this phantasmagoria retreat
And deftly seize, my Merchant Vagabond,
The puppet master's strings left dangling.
Again rise up to take your place and dance."
Something ignited in the darkness surrounding her, forcing her to open her eyes once more into the murky gloom she was in. A shape was looming over her. She barely could focus at all over it, as it dissolved into a kaleidoscope of colors. A sharp pain erupted inside her body - everywhere at once. It was someone she'd seen. She groaned.
" My rescuer ! At last ! But…I fear you are too late for me. "
The shape tilted its head towards her, in a gesture of curiosity. The movement struck something in her mind, like a vague recognition of something oddly familiar. It was like…a song she couldn't understand. A shining jewel she couldn't comprehend. A promise of death yet ever delayed.
She tried to burrow into the pile, into nothingness once more.
" Alas, the biles of death will save you not,
The whirling waltz of chance and gloom you'll dance."
The shape leant over her and injected her with something. At last, Elena felt her heart beat with adrenaline, sending a surge of energy in her veins. She felt her pupils narrow down, every detail of the scene she was in now laid before her in a merciless clarity. A sense of awareness came back to her.
" Get up, child, get up", said her dad patiently, leaning on her left. " Time to go to work. Don't want to be late."
She shook her head feverishly, unmoving in the pile of corpses. " Where am I ?" she asked.
" Among the shadows in the wings you lie,
Where taut are pulled the puppet master's strings", replied the stranger..
She took a good look at him. His voice sounded melodic and velvety, and, for an Aeldari, he was speaking a very good High Gothic. She could not see his face, hidden behind a mask of silver covering his face and elongating it with two prominent horns. The Aeldari wore a strange clothing suit, with splashed colors and patterns of purple and yellow - it looked both completely risible in such a gloomy setting, but also strangely threatening. She felt uncomfortable looking at him.
" Oblivion's song," she said, narrowing her eyes. " You're here again and there after. Came to sing me a lullaby ? Give me a pendant ? I'd like a lullaby. "
The xenos said nothing for a few seconds, studying her with no sign of compassion or anger, but with tension and impatience. She found it infuriating that she could not try to read at his expression through the mask.
" The puppet already knows the steps of the dance, it seems ;
Though their mind is ripping apart at its seams.
No déjà-vu, no games, no forebodings ;
I assure you, Merchant Vagabond, that this is our first meeting. "
Elena suddenly startled, trying to scramble up on her feet. The xenos took a step backward to avoid her as she fell back on the ground, whimpering.
" Abel ! I failed Armanat ! Heinrix ! Idira ! Where are my companions ? Are they not here with me ? "
The stranger replied calmly : " Not here. The roles have been decided now,
But if you play your part, perhaps, the plot
Will draw you back together…or to doom."
The stranger laughed wickedly at that, not an ounce of pity in him. Elena howled like a wounded beast and, in a show of will, managed to get back on all fours - then, trembling, stood up, her head burning and her vision blurring.
" I refuse that ", she stated coldly, and for a second there was a sense of the old Elena in the glimmer of resolve and stubbornness in her dark eyes. But then it faded as she turned to speak to someone that wasn't here : " I will save them. I promise to myself I will. I will save the squad, Orlon! "
The stranger sighed, and grabbed the crazy woman by the shoulders, gently forcing her to look at the pile of corpses.
" To ghosts and winds your mind is reaching ;
In between the lines of the script you're set in.
This overture in verse, the final lines :
The Merchant's time to tread the boards has come,
Embark you now upon your pilgrimage.
And take my parting gift : a humble prop. "
The stranger deposited something into her only left hand. It took Elena a while to figure out it was a gun. She put it up to her face. The gun was heavy, ancient, carved with silvery flowers - it looked more like a decoration than an actual gun.
" A bolter would have been nice", she mumbled to herself. " Don't you think so, Argenta ? A bolter round to the head, just like you did Theodora."
Argenta, in her robes of Repentia, shook her head sadly, looking at her. " I'm sorry for you, Elena, I really am."
Elena shook her head as well. " Here we go, motherless children. Wonder what fate would have held for us if we only had a mom to look after us, eh ?"
She stepped forward, one corpse caught her ankle, smiling at her with warmth. " You are done for", they said. " Join us. "
" Sorry, corpses. I have to get out of bed," murmured Elena. " I need to save the Expanse. See you later. "