Anhomqena felt that she was at a crossroads in her life.
She had a very deep problem, and that was what to do with herself. In the past that would have been, Anhomqena had planned out her life carefully… after her marriage and ennoblement, she would immediately stop taking her contraceptives and start taking fertility draughts. Anhomqena had desired, more than anything, to be a mother. She had deeply craved the joy of holding her children, of seeing their little faces. That had been her final aspiration, when she had made the best nest for them she could.
Now that was over and she was immortal. So what was she to do? Just be a living source of memories? That hardly seemed enough. She was a fine dancer and was working with more than Anastasia… they were both working with Panaa now, and an entire trope of young dancers, to replicate the temple dances. That was good work but eventually it would be over. What then?
Anhomqena had an idea of what she could do and she had approached Reinhart with it. He had consented to help her and now, she was engaged in drama classes. Both with a professional drama coach and also that beautiful young man, Adler.
That led to a rather amusing but dangerous misunderstanding.
"Ah, my beloved," Adler murmured in her ear as Anhomqena artistically arranged herself for the camera. She was trying to perfect intimate scenes. It was not easy, and the fact that she had no expressions did not help. She had to convey everything with body language and artistic trembles. "You are so beautiful." Anhomqena pretended to tremble as he gently ran a hand up her side. Just a bit more and she would -
Then the door opened and Osatek walked in.
Anhomqena was caught entirely off guard when Adler was abruptly yanked off her. She stared in shock as Osatek started choking the young human although thankfully, NOT with his full strength. He could have killed Adler instantly but he was holding back from that while still being incandescently angry.
"What are you doing with my wife?!" Technically they weren't married but Anhomqena wasn't about to correct him. Not about that, at least.
"No, stop! We are filming! This is drama! Osatek, stop!" She pried at his hands as Adler made a gagging sound. For a moment Osatek ignored her but then he glanced around, spotting the camera that was still running and catching everything.
"Drama…?" He loosened his grip enough that Adler could draw air. Osatek wasn't letting him go, though.
"I am trying to learn to be an actor and we were working on intimate scenes… the script is right there!" Anhomqena said desperately, pointing at the table. Osatek tilted his head before going to the table, dragging Adler with him. The young human rolled his eyes at her and Anhomqena wanted to curse him. Did he not appreciate how dangerous this was?!
"Oh, I see… you were going to stab him?" Yes, that was part of the script. "Hmph." Osatek made a harrumphing sound before finally letting go of Adler. Anhomqena felt her anxiety go down a touch.
"I did tell you I was taking drama lessons," she reminded him. This had not been a secret at all. Osatek still seemed unhappy, although she wasn't entirely sure why. Adler was straightening his clothing. "Adler, are you alright?"
"Oh, it's fine! It's not the first time I've been choked by a jealous husband," Adler waved the matter away. "Although normally, I have done more to deserve it," he said with a charming, roguish smile. That seemed to make Osatek unhappier and he abruptly turned away, leaving the room. Anhomqena stared after him. What was wrong?
"I must go…" This hadn't resolved things and she was not going to leave Osatek like this. He was deeply upset. Was he… really jealous? Anhomqena hurried after him. He had never been jealous like this before, when she had been a palace prostitute and other males had been admiring her body. What was wrong?
When she found Osatek, he was staring at the sculpture he was still working on. It was nearly done and Anhomqena thought it was a beautiful depiction of the Stormlord, as he'd been when she knew him… old, so old, yet still incredibly powerful and vital. Anhomqena thought that if only they had all been blessed with lives as long as the Stormlord's, the necrontyr would have been content with their lot.
"Osatek, my love, what is wrong?" Anhomqena asked, going to his side. For a moment, she cursed their metal bodies… he seemed sunk in some dark emotion and if he'd had any expressions to speak of, she could have made a better guess at what it is. But now they had to depend on glyphs to signify their emotional state and Osatek wasn't using his. It was the ultimate 'poker face' as the humans would say.
(necrons had a game similar to poker in some ways, so that phrase did work in their language)
"Why are you even with me now…" Osatek murmured, so low she almost could not hear. Anhomqena was speechless for a moment. What was he saying?
"Osatek, I love you… what are you saying?" This was not like him at all. Anhomqena had not seen Osatek like this before and she had known him for years.
"I can't offer you anything, anymore." Anhomqena honestly wanted to take offense. Did he think she had no honor, to just abandon him when she had what she wanted?! Also, did he truly think she did not care for him? She was not one to lie about such things. "I'm not what I thought I was." What?
"Osatek, please, what is wrong?" This wasn't just about her, not really, although she had triggered it. Osatek looked down and the painful truth came out.
In a way, finding out what had happened to him as a necron did not come as a terrible shock to her. Anhomqena knew Osatek very well and knew he was fairly mediocre at everything except his art. That was his great gift and Anhomqena had possessed great faith in him, that he would do something wonderful, even in the short time he had left. Yet that had been as a necrontyr… as a necron, that gift had been extinguished, leaving not much of anything.
What truly shocked and horrified her, though, was hearing how Imotekh had treated him. She knew why it had happened… the Stormlord's mind had been wiped completely, he hadn't known Osatek was his son… but it was truly shocking. And Anhomqena could see it had truly crushed his spirit. He was finding salvation in his art, but even in that, Osatek had trouble believing in himself. His sense of self-worth had been entirely crushed.
"Osatek, you shouldn't take it to heart. Your father does love you, he didn't mean it," she said, trying to lift his spirits. Osatek shook his head.
"No… he did mean it. The kind words he said to me before, that was what he didn't mean." That… that might be true, but it was still a horrible way to look at it! "You should be with someone who is worthy of you, not a failure like me."
"You are not a failure!" Anhomqena said fiercely, using her glyphs to indicate her deep sincerity. "How can you say that about yourself? Look!" She tugged him towards the sculpture and then grabbed his headdress, forcing him to look at it. "It's beautiful. Don't you see that it's beautiful?"
"There are so many things wrong with it." UGH! Anhomqena remembered this about him, he'd done this so many times with the bust too. Always quibbling and finding flaws in his own work when she could only see perfection. And while she might not be an actual expert in art, a critic like some of the others, she did have an eye for what was good. Anhomqena felt certain this was just Osatek's insecurities coming out. Well, she should remind him of that.
"You did this with the Phaeron's wife's bust too, and everyone loved it. Your father loved it," Anhomqena reminded him. Although truthfully, she didn't think Imotekh had actually loved it, he did not know or care about art at all. In terms of the public acclaim it had received, though, Imotekh had been proud of his son. "You have so much talent, you just have to learn to set it free." And now he had so much time to perfect his art.
"I still don't know why you're with me now. You could do so much better than me. And I was never…" Osatek trailed off and Anhomqena tilted her head, before flashing questioning glyphs. "…never that good in bed…" Anhomqena felt the complete, lunatic hilarity of the moment. Did he actually?!
"Love, we no longer have genitals," she gently pointed out and he looked away, embarrassed. Then she embraced him. It felt a bit odd, metal against metal, but now she fit properly against him with her smaller, slighter body and feminine curves. "Oh Osatek… would it surprise you to know that I loved that about you?" He jerked slightly in surprise. "You just got overexcited sometimes and you were always so worried that you had not pleased me… it was sweet." Even when she genuinely had not gotten there, Osatek's concern for her pleasure had touched her heart. There were many nobles who were infinitely worse in bed and simply didn't care. To them, it was her job to provide the pleasure, not the other way around. Sometimes, Anhomqena thought she had been greatly favored to have Imotekh as her first… he had shown her how mating was supposed to be. "You know what we should do?" The idea suddenly came to her, blinding in its' simplicity. "We should get married." Despite the fact that Osatek had called her his wife, they had not actually been married before the biotransference. They had actually been planning the ceremony and celebration as the time had come.
"We – we should? You want to?" Osatek said and Anhomqena could tell he wanted that, so much. "But who could officiate it?" Hmm.
"Panaa might know the ancient rituals." Although Anhomqena was not sure of that. Panaa had been a funereal priestess, which was a very different job from conducting weddings. "And if she doesn't, we could have a human ceremony." Anhomqena was not remotely religious. Even before she had gone through the flames of betrayal, her feelings towards the priesthood had mostly been wariness and dread. There had been rumors among the children of the orphanage that children such as them could be sacrificed to the gods, in a particularly bad year. As an adult, Anhomqena knew that there was a horrible element of truth in it… boys in the orphanage who were too frail for the military would be tested, harshly, to determine if they might be intelligent enough to become a cryptek. If they failed that as well, they became slaves and the usual fate of such was sacrifice. Girls could suffer a similar fate, if they failed to develop breasts and the klystok never softened. That indicated infertility and a healing cryptek would normally confirm it before they were made temple slaves, very likely to end up sacrifices to the gods. Or sometimes, depending on the situation, they might be given an operation to forcefully open their genitals and still given to the men as a camp whore. However, that was a truly horrible fate because such a female would never be accepted into the military caste and would live and die serving the men, likely unable to take any pleasure in it. Anhomqena shuddered a bit at the thought.
"Why don't we have a human ceremony here, and then a necron one on Mandragora?" Oh, that was an excellent idea! Then they could state it to everyone. "I think Trazyn could come up with something…" He probably could, although he'd likely tell everyone it was a bit ahistorical. Anhomqena really did not care the least. Although.
"I do remember witnessing one wedding, although the rituals would have been much different," Anhomqena mused. Osatek tilted his head inquiringly. "It was when the granddaughter of the Phaeron, a precious treasure of Sautekh, married the prince of Suhbekhar. It was a great Dynastic match, with many sacrifices and feasts to honor the occasion." It was a shame that blood connection was essentially lost. Anhomqena had no idea what had become of the prince but the princess, the precious treasure, was surely lost among the Warriors. Osatek hesitated a moment.
"Oh… I remember… she was a precious treasure because of her beauty?" Yes. The rest of her family had only been middling of appearance but that granddaughter had somehow been blessed with absolute loveliness and a sweet nature. It had made her the most sought-after young noblewoman in Sautekh and her father had arranged a fine match for her. "The wedding was held for the entire court." That was unusual, most weddings were smaller and more private, even for high nobles. But the major exception to that was marriages between Dynasties, forging new connections of blood and power. "I can barely remember… but you can remember it all, can't you?" he said and she nodded. She remembered it all, from the grand ceremony with a whole bevy of priestesses and the high priest, to the very elaborate feast. Anhomqena wistfully wished they could have done that again… one thing she very much missed was eating. The great sculptures of bread and sweets had been amazing and she had loved the little buns in the shapes of the Suhbekhar and Sautekh Dynasty crests. Not to mention the great roasted meats, the seafoods and the grand platters of vegetables, arranged into more images of the Sautekh and Suhbekhar Dynasty. So much wine had flowed and it had truly been a wonderful occasion. The princess and prince had both seemed very happy with the match.
"We could create a simplified version. That was a very special wedding, the kind that comes once a thousand years." Such alliances between powerful Dynasties were rare indeed. "Perhaps I should detail that celebration to Trazyn," Anhomqena mused. There were so many memories in her mind, she had almost forgotten about that wedding. Now that she was thinking of it, though, she remembered everything.
Then Osatek suddenly caught her by surprise, as he returned her embrace fervently. Anhomqena relaxed against him, feeling safe and held, cocooned by his strength.
"You really want this?" he asked and she nodded, feeling her heart sing. She did want to be married, it would mean something even now and it clearly meant even more to Osatek. "We should talk to Panaa, she would know about the human rituals or at least who we should talk to."
"Yes… why don't we do that right now?" Her lesson was long over, Adler had surely gone on to his own work. "STC, where is Panaa?" As they were members of the Sautekh Dynasty, they had some access to the STC. Nothing much, because they did not need much, but it would answer simple questions.
She is in the Duleth Botanical Gardens, near the Duleth crest. She appears to be meditating. Oh good, that would be a short trip and Panaa would likely not mind having her meditation disturbed for a bit. And the gardens were beautiful, Anhomqena had seen them several times and would like to see them again.
When they found her, Panaa was kneeling in the soft grass, a rosary in hand as she clinked slowly through the beads. Anhomqena paused to just examine her a moment… she had a far less feminine design, almost androgynous, but the beautiful violet enamel and the soft violet scarf she wore did give a hint of her gender. She definitely no longer looked like a Warrior, more a Cryptek in design, although a plain one.
"Panaa? Can we disturb you?" Osatek said gently and Panaa roused from her reverie, looking up. Then she pulled herself to her feet.
"Oh, of course, great one," she said before bowing deeply to Osatek. Anhomqena was reminded that Panaa still considered herself low caste, despite her elevations and Osatek was related directly to the Phaeron. Both of them, technically, since the Stormlord still honored his old patron. "How may I be of assistance?" she asked before tilting her head slightly, a mute inquiry.
"We were hoping to be married. We had thought we might have a human ritual on Hope, then have a necrontyr one on Mandragora, as best we can." That just wasn't going to be fully accurate, no matter what they did. Unless… Anhomqena suddenly had a thought and filed it away. She'd been told Oramoton the Eternal had looked into her future to find she was worth resouling, and had taken notes on many others. Had he found any priests of the ancient necrontyr? Priests who would know the wedding rituals?
"Oh, that is a good idea… I am sorry, I do not truly know the necrontyr marriage rituals." They had expected as much. "I… I can't even remember my own clearly… I was, um, paying more attention to other things." Oh, how sweet. If she had been able to, Anhomqena would have smiled but instead she flashed glyphs of understanding. "Forgive me though, what kind of wedding do you want to have? Small and intimate, or a large gathering?" Hmm.
"I might prefer something small, with just our friends," Anhomqena said uncertainly. Would Phaeron Rahkaak take offense, if no one was invited but Reinhart and their artist friends? Osatek nodded.
"I would prefer that as well. We can have a much larger wedding in Mandragora." That sounded practical to her. Panaa seemed to be pleased with that answer.
"Oh, you know, perhaps I could officiate!" Oh, that would be wonderful if she could. Anhomqena would be far more at ease with someone she knew than with a strange human priest. "I am a lay priestess now, I have taken some vows and can conduct many rituals… I will have to see if my priest says that is fine." Excellent! "What time frame for this were you thinking?"
"Perhaps four weeks?" That would give Reinhart enough time to clear out the mansion for a day. They would want it entirely to themselves during the wedding, so they could have a wonderful party afterwards. Anhomqena felt a great deal of pleasure at the thought… even if she couldn't eat herself, she would enjoy being part of the celebration. Perhaps they could have some entertainment, music and dancing? She would love that! Reinhart could help them arrange it all, she was sure he would love to.
Reinhart's great joy in life was arranging things. Anhomqena had great faith that he could arrange a wedding.
Elsewhere, on Craftworld Iyanden.
Everything on the planet of Yggdrasil had been cleaned up, the humans returned to their homes. All the forces had departed, except the standard PDF and the usual pickets and defensive emplacements. And the Craftworld now had a permanent home, as a 'planet' in this solar system. They could leave of course, but why would they? Yggdrasil offered rich supplies of many things even eldar needed, and they were more than willing to trade.
Then the Stormlord's first true command came to them and they could that he had been moving them to Yggdrasil for his own ends.
As my subjects, this is what I wish of you. I want weapons that access the power of the Warp, and can defeat our recall functions. Morfynn blinked at that and saw that the rest of their Council was also a little confused at the Stormlord's demand. Why would a Necron want that? I know these weapons will likely not be ready in time to be used in the Pariah Nexus, and that is acceptable. I truly want them to use on the Maynarkh. Are you aware of the Maynarkh Dynasty? Ah, yes, she actually HAD heard of them.
"They are the ones Craftworld Alaitoc are constantly at war with, the ones who devastated the Orpheus sector," Morfynn said. She had heard that the rising of the Maynarkh Dynasty had cost the humans trillions of lives, as an entire sector of space quickly and brutally went dark. The Stormlord nodded his head, the two-way FTL communication wavering for a moment before steadying.
Yes. They are badly tainted by the Flayer virus and hate all organic life. There can be no peace, only war, and I aim to annihilate them. I will provide you with Lords and psyker Crypteks, supplies of metal from Yggdrasil, anything you need. Also, test subjects from Mandragora will be sent. Test subjects? Necron Warriors that have been tested and found to be insane. Do not fear to break them, death would be a relief to them. Oh… well, that was grim. Morfynn wondered how they had tested them, but decided not to ask.
"What kind of success rate would you consider adequate?" One of the others asked. The Stormlord tilted his head for a moment, thinking about it.
Anything above three percent would be helpful. Anything above ten would be excellent. Yes, she could see that. Given that these would be permanent losses, on a race that could not reproduce and normally did not suffer them, anything above ten percent would quickly become quite ruinous to the other side. If they could produce the weapons in quantity and make it possible for the necrons to use them, of course.
When the communication was over, the others immediately fell to discussing the request. They knew it COULD be done, they often did make such weapons to combat the necrons. The only difficulty was making them usable for those who were not strong psykers… it might be that they could not do it, that only the psyker Crypteks would be able to use the weapons. If that was the case, perhaps they would have to focus on cannons. But was there a way to make the psychic ability of the user unnecessary? Perhaps even using the soul stones they no longer needed? They were good at carrying and storing power.
Morfynn found, as they discussed matters, that she was deeply enjoying this. Not only was it a challenge, it would be valuable to the new war effort. And from Cegorach's prophecies, Imotekh's position in that conflict would be as a savior, moving against his own King and possibly keeping the eye of Isha from closing forever.
They would do everything they could to help.
