Overlord Amenhoros was in a state of deep resignation that verged upon despair.
Amenhoros had no clear memories of the Flesh Times, but the feelings from that period still resonated in his mind. He knew he had worshipped his Phaeron. He knew he had loved him. He knew Galmakh had been their light in the darkness, the rock upon which they could all depend. Not a perfect Phaeron by any measure – oh, he'd had many flaws – but a great necrontyr and a great leader. He had inspired them all.
All gone now. All gone, destroyed by the C'Tan and the Great Sleep. Shreds of it had survived and they could sometimes see the person he'd been, but that made it all more painful. They all desperately wanted that Galmakh back but they had no one to even pray to anymore.
Yet, duty still existed and Amenhoros had only that left. He clung to it, feeling like it was the only reason left to continue living. And as he was abandoned on this cold world to die, Amenhoros did the only thing he could.
"Cease fire. We will surrender," Amenhoros gave his commands, preserving what he could. If they had been fighting a lesser race he would not have done this, but this was Sautekh. He could save the lives of the Warriors and Immortals, the Crypteks and Deathmarks. They could surrender themselves to Sautekh and serve a new Phaeron. Amenhoros himself could not, his fate would be grim, but for the sake of the others he would accept that.
Amenhoros had no good way to reach out to Sautekh, their interstitial messages were closed to them, and rightly so. Instead, he simply walked towards the human line. They had stopped firing, probably from the order of a commander who had expected this. As he walked towards them, the single mecha in their line yelled at them to not fire. Then that same mecha stepped out to meet him.
"I prefer to make my surrender to my own kind," Amenhoros said, feeling completely dead inside. The Knight Armor responded in his own language.
I know. Unfortunately, the Immortals and Deathmarks here do not feel they are of sufficient rank to accept your surrender. The Overlord in charge of this battle was leading the team attempting to deal with your sappers. He is coming, it will not be long, please wait. Ah, well, understandable. Amenhoros would surrender to an Immortal if he had to, but it would be unpleasant and probably disturbing for the Immortal as well.
It was not long at all before a familiar Overlord arrived.
"Amenhoros. I am saddened to meet you this way, but pleased to see you are well. You wish to surrender?" Overlord Tanhekhtot asked and Amenhoros bent his head.
"My Phaeron has abandoned us to certain death, and I see no reason to spend precious lives. I surrender my forces to you, to do with as you will. As for myself, my loyalties cannot change. I ask that you grant me an honorable death," he said and Tanhekhtot hesitated a moment.
"You truly will not change your loyalties, even now?" he asked and Amenhoros just stayed silent. He knew Galmakh wasn't worth his loyalty, not anymore, but he still couldn't. "I cannot grant your request. This is a matter for the Phaeron." Yes, he'd known that.
"I do wish to speak to Imotekh, before he grants my request," Amenhoros said, certain the Stormlord would be willing to give him what he desired. And there was a very good reason for that. "It is disloyalty beyond all others but for the good of all Necrons, I have information to give him. Word of Galmakh's insanity and his plans." Amenhoros could not allow it to go on. It was too much. Tanhekhtot's eyes flared as he realized this was something deadly serious.
"You cannot tell me?" he said and Amenhoros remained silent. "I see. You will be taken to Mandragora and have audience with the Stormlord, we will see to it." Yes, he was sure he would. The Sautekh forces began taking control of his and Amenhoros allowed himself to be escorted away.
What he meant to do was truly unforgivable, and Galmakh had never imagined this treachery. But Amenhoros had been left with no choice.
Loki was incredibly, wonderfully happy.
His month of punishment had consisted of helping clean up all the destroyed buildings and other stuff from the Chaos attack. The human soldiers had been confused about why he and Calder were helping, but he'd just explained that they were on punishment duty and they got it.
Now that was over though and he was ready to help Ke'yanakh however he wanted! And it started in a really interesting way.
"I want to test your abilities. These are all from solved cases. Tell me what you think of this set of images," he said before giving Loki three pictures. They were gruesome murders, with symbols scrawled on the walls in blood and feces. Also, symbols had been carved into the bodies. Loki took his time, examining everything carefully before giving his verdict.
"This is just a random nutter, sir, a serial killer. No psyker abilities, nothing serious, you should leave this to the local police." Loki knew that was how it worked, Ke'yanakh was specifically looking for Chaos cults and other infections. Other crimes were not for him. The Overlord made a glyph of questioning, asking wordlessly for more of an explanation and Loki elaborated. "There's no pattern in these symbols. This isn't how Chaos worship works, but it is how crazy people work. This is nothing important." He was sure of it. Ke'yanakh made a glyph of satisfaction.
"You are correct, that was merely a serial killer. Now, these." Loki looked at the next set of images and felt a prickle of unease. They weren't actually that bloody, only a few corpses and they looked to have been gang members that had been fighting. But there were symbols gouged in the walls of what looked to be a hive city, and gouged in really deep.
"This could be serious. These aren't human symbols at all, I don't recognize them, but they're internally consistent. They could be xenos, or they could be something newer, from a true grimoire." Loki knew that the symbols dedicated entirely to the worship of the Chaos Gods could be very different. "These bodies and the way it's gouged in… this looks like hunting behavior to me. I think this is something that's come through, either a possessed human or something worse." Loki shook his head. "I can't tell anything beyond that, except that this is worth investigating, particularly if this is a new thing. If it's something really old, that's been going on hundreds of years, it might be creepy but not serious but if it's new, it's bad." Ke'yanakh nodded.
"It was a Warp creature that had possessed a very large dog and turned it into a monster. It was hunting and etching that symbol with its claws." Loki wondered if it had been trying to summon something greater, or open a Warp portal. It was good that they'd got it. "Now, this is the last of the completed cases, then we will move to active ones." Loki took the last of the files and felt a deep fascination as he looked them over.
"Wow. Calder, get a load of this. This is worship of Kali!" Loki marveled at the detailed and intricate patterns of cuts on a body. "I never imagined anyone would really do this. Also, that's a bit strange, they're mixing traditions from different eras." Loki moved to a different picture, comparing them side by side. "This method of murder is from the Great Pagan Revival but this is much, much older, going back to ancient India."
"Loki, I know we've seen a lot of bloodshed in our lives, but can you show any respect for the dead?" Calder said and Loki felt mildly ashamed of himself, but still couldn't help but feel incredibly fascinated.
"Sorry Calder – but uh, for what we were talking about, this is VERY serious sir. An organized cult that is mixing traditions from different eras for the same god, they knew what they're doing. I would guess that they're using the worship of Kali as a proxy for one of the Ruinous Powers, but I'm not sure which one. Either Nurgle or Khorne, I would think." Neither of them precisely matched up to Kali, but Loki was willing to bet she was long dead. "Or they could be supplicating a lesser demon of some kind. Either way, this is a genuine threat." Ke'yanakh made glyphs indicating that he was pleased with Loki's performance.
"Very good. This was indeed a death cult devoted ultimately to Nurge. They were involved in the Corpse Flower shipments that we rooted out." Ah! That made sense. "Now, these are active cases. Give me your evaluation." Loki took the files and began to look through them.
Roughly half of them, he was able to dismiss as random nutters. Loki could see why it was confusing for Ke'yanakh… some of them liked to draw the same symbols, or give them a theme. But Loki could determine the lack of an internal logic, like the rune Ahriman had used. Without that internal consistency, they were just insanity, of no value to the Warp. Of the others, most of them were fairly minor but Loki arrowed in on one particular thing.
"This is incredibly serious, sir, and you need to get on it right away," Loki said, spreading the images on the table. They were murder scenes that sent a real shiver down his spine, because he recognized the pattern. "This is Aztec rituals. I wonder how they got hold of this information?" That was a little crazy because Loki could see they were doing it right. "Do you have the dates all of these happened, and the local calendar?" It took a bit of work, but Ke'yanakh helped and they were able to create a calendar and then Loki transposed the ancient Aztec calendar over it. "They've even got the dates right. They're good," Loki said, truly impressed by the attention to detail. Although. "This is serious worship of all three Ruinous Powers, sir. Possibly also some unaligned demons or surviving gods, but definitely all of the Ruinous Powers. I bet they have a strong psyker too, that might explain how they got these rituals."
"I see. I did suspect that was important. What do you think of this?" Ke'yanakh offered him another file and Loki looked through the images. They were small murders, just a single person each time, and the murder was conducted in the center of a ritual circle while patterns were inscribed on the body. It was an obvious attempt at summoning but…
"Oh, this is just sad sir. This person has no idea what they're doing," Loki said, feeling terribly sad at the futility of it all. "These are genuine rituals, also from the Great Pagan Revival, but they're doing them completely wrong. These symbols are supposed to be inscribed on a sheep or a goat, and that ritual circle is a protection circle that's meant to be inscribed around people overseeing the ritual. How could someone get it this wrong?" Loki asked, before answering himself. "I think this person has a book from the Revival period, but they can't read it… it could be in High Gothic, or even a more ancient tongue, we still used other languages back then. He's going by pictures and getting it all wrong, it's just sad. You can ignore this sir, he's not going to summon anything like this."
"I see, that is very useful. Now, it is time for you to learn." Ohh? Loki tried to seem bright and eager.
What he began learning, that day, was the basics of how genuine investigations were run. Ke'yanakh did not teach Loki himself, but put him under a very experienced Lord who worked on Hemingway. Calder was being taught too, since there was no reason NOT to teach him and Loki found it incredibly fascinating. He'd never once in his life thought he might want to become an investigator but now he was interested!
"I am really very happy about this," Calder said much later, when they were both off duty. "I never thought I might want to be a private investigator, but this is very interesting and you already seem to be good at it." Loki nodded enthusiastically.
"I think this is what we're going to be doing for a long time! If we win in the Pariah Nexus, anyway." And they couldn't lose! Could they? Loki didn't know for sure but he was going to do everything he could to make sure victory happened!
They played games for a bit before Loki went to his new rooms. It was a lot bigger than his space on the ship, and bigger even than his space in the barracks of Luminous, but Loki had no idea if he should start to make use of it. He could start a new book collection, maybe even get some forbidden books and expand his knowledge? Loki wasn't sure why, but he wasn't afraid of any books, not even grimoires.
Wait, what am I thinking, I wander through the Warp all the time why would I be scared of a book? Loki thought as he walked to the window he had… wait, was this a balcony? Wow, this was so much nicer than anywhere he'd lived before! Loki pushed open the door and went to stand on the balcony, looking over the city. Although I shouldn't be arrogant. If a book was actually sentient, Loki knew he shouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole.
As he stood on the balcony, though, Loki's thoughts and mood went another way. He was normally bright and happy and like a bubbling brook, frothing and moving endlessly. But once in a while, his mood changed… this was a rare mood, a mood that was like the depths of an ocean. Cold and deep, moving with deadly purpose. Loki knew this mood… it was how he'd felt that one time that he and Calder had completely turned the tables on a drukhari and the hunter became the hunted.
Loki had no idea why he was feeling that way right now but he moved on instincts and stepped sideways in the world, stepping out of his body and into a dark, filthy oubliette in what was probably a Civilized World. As he did, Loki realized he was large… so big he barely fit into the space, his horns were brushing the ceiling. He was probably as tall and broad as a Primarch! He was wearing a great cloak, heavy grey wool and the shoulders were decorated with a beautiful fur ruff.
In front of him, an old man, perhaps seventy years old, had sacrificed a much younger man. He looked like a ganger to Loki and he wondered how the old man had managed it. Drugs or did he have support, a small cult maybe? Loki tilted his head, then stared as he recognized the symbols being inscribed onto the corpse.
/That's my name/ Loki said and the man almost fell over, staring up at him in wide eyed terror, looking like he might go into heart failure at any moment. /What do you think you're doing?/ Trying to supplicate Loki was pure madness! Even if he was still around, which he might be, he was scary and completely unpredictable, you had to be insane! The old man swallowed hard and Loki noticed one of his eyes was milky and blind, a scar tracking over it and his whole appearance was deeply weathered. He'd worked hard all his life.
"G-Great one, please help me," he started, putting his hands together in a prayerful gesture. Loki waved it off.
/I am just here to tell you off. You're doing this all wrong. Supplicating Loki? Do you even know who I am?/ He wasn't going to explain he wasn't the real Loki right now, he wanted to give this guy a proper fright. /I am the Trickster God and your offering is trash. What need do I have for souls? Also, this is a protection circle, not a summoning circle. What book are you using?/ Loki glanced around and spotted it on the floor. It was very old and open on the ground, the binding badly broken. Loki picked it up and noticed that it had been an excellent book when it was first made, although it had suffered badly with time. /This is written in German! You can't even read this!/ Not that Loki could either but he could recognize the language. He snapped the book shut and looked at the man in disgust. /Knock it off old man./ Loki started to turn away but then the old man lunged forward and actually grasped his cloak.
"No, don't go! Even if I did it wrong, you're here right? Please help me save my daughter, I will give anything!" He begged and Loki could see his desperation. Still.
/I don't know what is wrong with your daughter but if she's dying, let her go. You don't understand what it means to make a deal with the Other Side,/ Loki said and he knew what he was talking about. He wouldn't make a deal for his mum, and he'd watched her dying slowly for years. She'd been old and frail and it had been her time but even if it hadn't been, Loki wouldn't have made a deal for her because he knew how that went and what you got was NEVER worth the price.
"You don't understand, she isn't dying!" Oh? "She's in a coma, she needs neural grafts, they could fix her but we don't have the money and the family is caring for her but just her care costs so much and she's getting sores but we all have to work and the children aren't strong enough and no one will help us Emperor someone please help us I'll do anything I'll give you anything it's destroying us!" The man stopped before looking up at Loki with desperate eyes. "You said this offering is trash, what do you want? Do you want my soul? I'll give it to you, please just help her," he begged and Loki sighed. His sigh was a real thing, a breeze of the artic and the old man shivered at the chill.
/This is why you shouldn't use a book you can't read. Gods and demons are not the same thing. Demons want souls, they feed on them and use them as currency. Gods want worship and when they take souls, they are of the most devout and they take them to their special place, to exist in spiritual bliss and provide worship for all eternity/ Loki said before gesturing at a wall. It opened up, became like a screen, a view into other times and places. /An offering to any God must be something of great value. For a rich man on his throne, it could be everything he owns/ The image showed a high noble of Terra, dressed in extreme finery, with a pained expression on his face as he offered a shrouded figure a great bag of gold. /For a starving slum dweller, it could be her last can of corpse starch/ The image shifted to a tiny girl, stick thin with trembling hands, placing that tin on a ramshackle altar to the Emperor. And white light flaring above it, manifesting into a small Angel as the offering was accepted. /It could be the life of a beloved child/ The scene shifted to a bloody altar, with a dead five-year-old child sprawled across it. Sitting on the ground in front of it was a Feral worlder, from his clothing, his face in his hands and the bloody knife in front of him. And before him was the great horned god, bowing his head as he accepted the sacrifice. Loki vaguely recognized him as Cernunnos… he was still around? Huh. /Now, what of value do you have to offer me?/ Loki turned back to the man and smiled, knowing full well it was an unpleasant smile full of very sharp teeth.
Then he abruptly lost his smile as he saw something very odd. The old man was wearing a necklace. Loki hadn't noticed it before, because it was completely hidden in his clothing, but he saw it now because to his eyes, it was glowing. Filling up with the power of the Warp. He hadn't done anything yet but that didn't mean anything since the Warp wasn't linear and his presence had triggered it?
"Would – would this do?" Fate had to be at work as the old man pulled off the necklace and offered it with a shaking hand. Loki saw it was a heavy, base metal chain with a small urn hanging from it. Mourning jewelry, he knew this. "It's a bit of my wife's ashes, she died three years ago it means so much to me but I'd give it for my daughter. She'd want me to," he said and feeling in a dream, Loki took the bit of jewelry and looked at the urn. Then he turned and gestured at his screen, making it shift again.
It was a sunny day, in a small apartment on a middle class hab block. Warm evening sun streamed through the window as a wizened old woman did the dishes by hand. Sitting at the table behind her and enjoying a nice cup of caffeine substitute, was the man by Loki's side. He was reading a paper. As he read, the woman paused and winced, as though something pained her. Then she reached up and used her wrist to rub her head, easing a headache?
"Mary…" the old man sounded strangled as he watched the scene. Loki felt a deep sadness, but he knew what he had to do.
/Would you give your life for your daughter?/ he asked her and she stopped for a moment, surprised. Then she frowned.
"Of course I would," she said before going back to her dishes. Loki knew she'd heard, but she hadn't understood and that wouldn't do.
/If your daughter lay rotting on a bed, her family struggling to support her as she dies by inches, would you give your life to heal her? Would you make this sacrifice?/ Loki asked and she stopped what she was doing, her eyes widening as she realized something. There was a pause and then she turned towards them, smiling. It was a beautiful smile.
"Of course I would." Then she suddenly collapsed. The sound of her body hitting the ground startled her husband at the table and he spilt his drink.
"Mary?!" He rushed to her side and Loki let the vision of the past end, let the nasty, dirty walls of this little oubliette come back. As it did, the man made a strangled sound.
"You killed her…? You killed her?!" he said and suddenly tried to attack Loki. It was sad and pathetic, as his fists could do nothing to the immense force he was pummelling, but he still tried, tears flowing down his face. Loki finally grasped his shoulder, stopping him with a cold gust of pure psychic power.
/Did I kill her? I don't know. Did you accidentally sacrifice her? I don't know. Was that just a destined end, and she was given the opportunity to make it a godly sacrifice? I don't know. Was it even all three? I don't know./ The way she had rubbed her forehead, like she had a headache, suggested to Loki that her death had been coming anyway. But he didn't know. /I only know that this,/ Loki held up the urn, letting it dangle from his fingers. It was fully impregnated with holy fire, now. /Has become a talisman. An artefact of true love. Come, let us use it/ Loki grasped the man's shoulder and stepped sideways in the fabric of the world.
The scene changed to a small room in a decent hab block. A woman lay on a bed, middle aged and still quite pretty, but even a quick glance said something was wrong. Her face was too slack and while her hair was neatly brushed and she seemed clean, there was an odor. Something starting to rot.
/In other circumstances, I might ask you to hand yourself over to the authorities when this is done,/ Loki said as he adjusted his size down to something more appropriate. He deliberately made himself taller than the old man, but only a bit. His horns more than made up for it anyway. /But while I am not particularly good at seeing the future, I can see far enough. You don't have much time. Spend it with them. Enjoy every moment./ Loki thought the old man had roughly four months. While he deserved a punishment, there was just no point. /Your punishment can come on the Other Side/ The old man looked down for a moment.
"…Should I pray to the Emperor for forgiveness?" he asked and Loki turned his head, looking at him through eyes that, though he didn't know it, were the pure blue of the Warp.
/Would you change it? Would you actually do things differently, knowing this outcome?/ Loki asked and the old man just shook his head. /Then don't bother. Go to Hell with your head held high, knowing you made a bargain with the Other Side/ There were trained sorcerers who hadn't done half as good.
Loki stepped to the bed, gently unscrewing the top of the urn. He held it over the bed for a moment, admiring the blue fire that only he could see.
/Let the ashes of the mother heal the daughter/ he said before gently sprinkling it over her. This time, the blue was visible, as little sparkles floated down and gently touched the unconscious woman. As they did, she stirred and opened her eyes. Loki bent over her, following instincts as she smiled.
"Mother?" she said and Loki gently touched her face, responding in a voice that was not his own.
/Yes sweety. Everything will be fine now,/ he said before deliberately abandoning the dream, letting his body vanish away as he slid back to his true body, waiting for him on Hemingway.
As he did, Loki jolted and for a moment, wondered if it had all been a dream. It was pretty crazy, wasn't it? Surely he'd just made that up from that case Ke'yanakh had shown him? But then something hit the ground and Loki blinked his oculars before looking down.
"Oh." It was the book. That poor, old, abused book in ancient German that he couldn't read. He'd taken it with him? Loki gently picked it up and looked at the cover. The gilt had rubbed away, but it had the tree of life inscribed on the cover. The ancient symbol matched his necklace. Was that just a coincidence? Or was there even such a thing anymore? Loki felt adrift and lost, as he gazed over the city and saw that dawn was just beginning to break.
He would have to tell Ke'yanakh about this, and maybe he should meet the eldar sooner than later.
