Chapter 58, The Scorched Librarium
Ark Reach Cluster
M30.886
Tanya Russ
Ark Reach I
"And another burning city to add to the list," I thought as the Rhino I was sitting atop slowly approached the former capital building of the last redoubt of the Ark Reach Cluster, the second planet and the final home of the Phoenix Kings.
The city was burning to some extent; the enemy had refused to surrender, so they'd done everything in their power to try and force a victory, including unleashing more waves of that disruptive psychic energy.
When the second psychic wave came, I had been very tempted to carve some powerful runes into the area around the city and just let them all freeze to death, but I had calmed myself, barely.
They were not finding as much success with their psychic attacks as they'd hoped. As far as I was aware, there had been at least four confirmed reports of individuals degrading and another several dozen reporting similar feelings of having their bodies almost reshaped by an animalistic urge to go in and hunt the bastards, particularly from the 13th Great Company. They had been hit the hardest, though some Rune Priests had also reported similar sensations.
Whatever the enemy had been attempting to achieve has failed. Mainly because every time they unleashed a wave of psychic nonsense to try and convert my men into monsters, they let us know where they were and we were well prepared with a counter. Over the years, one of the things that I had learned which was quite useful for dealing with psychic rituals was that it was quite difficult to focus on said rituals when you were busy trying not to die from a concentrated artillery bombardment, of course we made sure they wouldn't have a chance to start the ritual up again by sending in a squad or two of friendly Wolves for a quick visit.
Now came the worst part in taking a city: hunting down every active combatant that was still alive inside the city and to avoid killing all the civilians. But that was getting hard because most of the civilians had decided that we were monsters who needed to be slain and came at us with everything from laser rifles to sticks and stones.
It was rather annoying. We would have accepted surrenders, but whatever propaganda the Phoenix Kings fed to their people made that option unlikely, so there would probably be only a small percentage of survivors from this battle on the enemy's side.
We were taking losses, of course, but they were relatively minor in comparison to what we experienced during the heights of the Rangdan Crusade, or even fighting Orks. All in all, victory was assured, assuming that things didn't go sideways.
The Rhino I was sitting on came to a stop, and I looked up at the last bastion of the Phoenix Kings. Its outermost fortifications had already been penetrated, which most likely meant it would be over soon, as my Marines were already through the gatehouse. Further observing the battlefield there was a burnt out husk of a Rhino and other lighter vehicles by the gatehouse, implying that the enemy still had some heavy weapons left in reserve, but it wouldn't save them for long.
Getting off the Rhino, I considered ending things quickly and leading a quick assault against the remaining enemy forces. However, my eyes turned to my right quickly, noting that the library that Magnus wanted was here, as well as a contingent of Thousand Sons pushing down the road towards it. They would be here soon as well. Magnus had been understandably silent about what had been happening from their perspective over the last few days. Though I imagined Magnus was assisting their Thousand Sons in creating their own defensive measures in response to the psychic waves as well as a solution for those that were heavily affected by it.
On one hand I could personally go into the castle myself, and hunt down the bastards who ran the place, or I could let my men do it and establish their own honor and pride for the killing of the bastards, and in the meanwhile I can attempt to smooth things over with my brother. Looking at the approaching Thousand Sons I couldn't spot Magnus from this distance, so I couldn't tell if they were so pissed off with me they had gone back to their male form or were keeping the female form just to appease their original statements on the matter.
Turning to Freki and Geri, I said, "Stay." They nodded as they continued to sit on top of the Rhino next to where I had been sitting. With that, I started to move towards the incoming column of Thousand Sons. Some of my men, members of the Varagyr and the First Great Company, detached themselves from guarding the other Rhinos as they came up and moved to join me. I took up a position by the front door of the library and waited for Magnus to arrive.
From this angle, I also saw some Word Bearers moving down another road towards this direction. Most likely, all three legions would probably be here soon enough, though it looked like they were just a forward group, and not the main force of the Word Bearers.
The column of Thousand Sons finally arrived, and Magnus stepped out from behind a tank to look at me with an annoyed glance.
"What are you doing here, sister?" she said, sounding particularly spicy.
"Oh, just waiting to see what you discover inside" I said with a smile before stepping out of the way. "The library should be secure, but I can always detach my men to make sure no one gets in and out from any known entrances. That way we can ensure that no one but us two can explore it if you would."
Magnus raised an eyebrow before saying, "You want a private conversation, hmm? Well, I guess I can spare you a few minutes before I let my men tear this place apart for all the information we can gather. Men, join the wolves in their efforts to secure the library's outer perimeter."
"You heard my sister, men! Secure the perimeter," I called. Two formations of Space Marines got to work securing the perimeter, although I noticed that my wolves went to the western side, while Magnus's Thousand Sons secured the eastern side.
"You want to enter first?" I said, offering the honor.
"I think I will," Magnus said, stepping up the steps and pushing open the large doors into the building. I followed, closing the door firmly behind me.
Letting out a breath, I said, "Alright" turning to face the horizon, "Sorry again for killing Hastur, I truly believed that he was beyond saving."
"You believe they were beyond salvation?" Magnus said, looking off into the library before saying, "Nothing is truly guaranteed, there's always a chance."
I couldn't help but snicker. "How very heroic. I wish you were right, but I have a feeling that you would be proven wrong in that case."
"Hmph, we shall see sister. At any rate, what is this I hear about some of your men undergoing a similar problem?" Magnus said, turning on me, holding her arms under her chest as she continued, "The word I'm hearing is that several of your men have grown several inches in height from the psychic attacks they launched."
I nodded, looking around before noticing a countertop and took a seat on it. I took a deep breath, trying to figure out the best way to say this before diving in. "My legion has something called the Canis Helix. It's a possibly natural DNA alteration specific to my home world of Fenris. It is a curse and a blessing for my legion. A blessing in the form that it has made the creation of Space Marines easier. We don't need to start recruiting at a young age; adults can go through the process and have a better chance of surviving, with the proper treatment, of course. However, the curse has a chance of resulting in the individual losing their sanity and being reduced to a savage wolf-like creature, akin to the animals of our planet. Under the right conditions, I have those creatures dumped in the middle of the woods on Fenris to fend for themselves. Sometimes, very rarely, they manage to pull themselves back together and reintegrate back into civilization, and if it's possible, to continue their process of turning into a Space Marine. If not, they end up being involved in the military in one form or another, often taking a position in the Fenrisian Guard or in the Valkyrie support units."
"... Wait, aren't the Valkyries an all-female formation?" Magnus said in confusion, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep, they are indeed an all-female formation," I confirmed.
"Huh, but doesn't that mean... ohhhh, very interesting. So, it isn't just my Legion that's had issues in stability," Magnus said in thought before turning to me again. "We've had a similar issue that plagued the Thousand Sons in the past. Though I thought I'd solved it, but apparently, the solution I arrived at hasn't completely solved the problems that plagued us."
She bit her lip before continuing, "The Flesh Change, my men aren't exactly sure what causes it, the one thing we do know is that overusing our psychic power seems to be the most common stressor. I believed I had it under control through my experimentation, but apparently, there are weak points in it. Direct psychic attacks to force the Flesh Change is a problematic vector I didn't consider, as you saw. I know that Hastur probably wasn't even there mentally the moment he succumbed. I had seen other examples of Flesh Change victims; their minds gone, taken by insanity and reduced to nothing but soulless empty husks inhabiting broken and twisted flesh. But I didn't want to believe that what I had managed to do had failed."
She shook her red hair in annoyance before saying, "I'll need to run more experiments to figure out what's going wrong. Most likely it's nothing major, just a setback, but a minor one. I simply need to continue my work to find a proper cure for this change."
I responded, "Well, perhaps your first statement was correct. Using too much psychic power probably is not healthy, especially the way your men have been doing it, with unfettered use, not relying on runes or other foci to control and channel the power, instead just relying on your own mental strength and will."
She replied, "Well, yes, but the potential gains from using our own mental abilities to control the psychic power give us more power to use against the enemy. I've studied some runecraft, especially over the last few months since joining this campaign, and I will concede that while it does have some uses, it is far more limited in certain aspects."
I countered, "It's better to be limited and alive, so you can learn to get stronger, than to end up as a victim of your own hubris, I would think," I said matter-of-factly.
She considered this for a moment and then said, "That is a point, though I believe the pursuit of knowledge should not be so greatly limited."
I clarified, "I'm not talking about limiting the pursuit of knowledge, I'm talking about safety precautions to make sure that your pursuit doesn't end with your premature death. Early pioneering scientists didn't run the other way when performing experiments because they needed the cardio; they did it because they knew there was a good chance they would die if they stayed too close to the chemical or radioactive reactions they were dealing with."
Magnus sighed before saying, "Okay, I guess that does make some sense, unfortunately."
She shook her head and added, "I understand your point of view on this matter. Perhaps we need to come up with some sort of system to better facilitate the transfer of knowledge between our separate psychic forces, both within the legions and those outside the legions. Some sort of organization that each one can shape a little but allows us to gather our resources."
I chuckled at that, saying, "So basically, you want each legion to have access to a library and the ability to pull books from said library on our gathered psychic knowledge, as well as similar testing procedures. This way, we can better work together and try to come up with the best ways to use psychic powers."
"Hmmm," Magnus looked around the room before nodding, "a library or librarium might do it. Yes, I would need the other Primarchs to sign on to this plan, but that would be the first step – having a collective resource for which our psychics can gather information and find safer ways to use their powers. Those who cannot go too greatly should use runes, while those with the potential to go beyond can do so, and so forth."
I expressed my support, saying, "I support it. The safer we make the process of using psychic powers, the better they can be used for humanity, especially since there is some evidence that the Warp can affect things without using psychic powers, based solely on religious or culminated belief that people gather."
As if the mention of religion were some sort of summoning card, the doors next to us burst open as Lorgar stepped into the room. She looked to be covered in blood but was smiling. She said, "Sisters, I was told you were in here, so I thought I would join you. What were we discussing?" She laid her power mace by the door and added, "I'm hoping that you two have put aside that little incident earlier this week. After all, you haven't talked to each other in a week, and it was kind of annoying being the messenger girl between you two."
"Yes, we've come to an understanding on that," Magnus said with a nod. She continued, "Now, we're talking about the more esoteric aspects of the Warp, I believe, and how religion plays into its shaping and such."
"Oh, I love a good conversation about that," she said with a smile, taking a seat next to me. To my annoyance, I noted that she was an inch taller than me. How did that happen? I could have sworn we were of similar height, but I pushed that thought out of my mind. I couldn't be jealous of every other Primarch seeming to be growing, as I was already familiar with the mechanics. Just when I thought I was the most down-to-earth individual so far among the Primarchs, maybe Lorgar was the second most down-to-earth. It was an intriguing thought: the atheist and the religious were more down-to-earth than those willing to use psychic powers for their own gain or simply took too much pride in their conquest. It was a weird concept but interesting nonetheless.
"What exactly are we talking about when it comes to the Warp, religion, and psychic powers?" she asked. "I've been meaning to ask you about it since you seem to have more of a grasp on this whole concept. I stated we need religion simply because it helps humanity find a core to build around, a good brick to build society off of. But there are the dangers that you've mentioned, that the Warp can affect things."
I sighed before saying, "There's a statue of me on my planet. Not the most flattering structure, I will note, but it has become synonymous with fertility."
Magnus let out a laugh.
"It's my own fault," I continued. "I put in a lot of work to make Fenris a better planet and to produce enough population to not only support its own needs but also the legions. So, it's sort of my fault that I've become associated with growth of all sorts. This is then also strengthened by the fact that right next to said statue is a literal hospital to help women during pregnancy. Well, the question I've come to wonder is: Is this the result of all the science and progress made, or is it the collective thoughts of the people believing that the statue is helping make pregnancies easier, and so they leave tributes there, resulting in it actually happening? Because that's how the Warp sometimes works."
"Oh, unintended idolism slowly creating Warp effects. Now, that's interesting," Lorgar said. "Is it possible?" she asked, looking at Magnus.
Magnus nodded and said, "Not only is it possible, it's downright likely. The psychic individuals of our allegiance can create massive explosions, yes, but when the power of belief is harnessed and focused on something, the Warp will shape reality to make it sort of true."
"Which is why I'm worried about your ideas sister, when you keep talking about how we should view the Emperor as a god," I noted, adding, "If the effect of people believing my statue causes fertility, is true, what's to say the Warp won't affect us the same way if they start believing things about us? People believe the Emperor is a god, he becomes a god. What do we know about gods? Well, most of them have a cruel streak towards things that aren't their point of view."
"Oh, that's actually kind of a terrifying thought," Lorgar said, leaning back. "The concept of you could be shaped by the people around you into what they believe you should be. That's definitely one of the Emperor's concerns. Not exactly a fan of the whole religion thing, but he is a good example for people to look to when it comes to what it is to be human, after all."
"Have you ever heard of the concept of utopia?" I asked, looking at her.
"I think I'm familiar with that concept. It's the idea that there is a perfect world waiting for you at the end of a long, hard path."
"Exactly. Now, people are always striving for it, even though that concept seems to always elude the people who go for it. Do you know why that is?"
"Why?" Lorgar asked, intrigued by where I was going.
"Because it's unreachable. Whatever you think perfection is will change as you try to reach it. So, you'll change it again to reach it, and you'll just keep changing it. Some of the people who went on that journey with you will find that the new changes aren't what they signed up for and will fight against it, making it harder and making you want to change things again. It's an endless spiral of purity that ends with you never reaching what you planned to have, and most likely, an authoritarian nightmare."
"This is why he doesn't want anyone thinking of him as perfect or a god. A god is supposedly perfect. God will bring in Utopia. People must strive to make Utopia. Then you get into the problems of people basically purity-spiraling until about two thirds of the population is dead from starving to death because the farmer class decided to be anti-revolutionary."
Lorgar blinked at me, looking confused, and I realized I may have let a little of my anti-communism stance slip into my explanation.
"Was that a shot at communism?" Magnus asked, which surprised me, and I looked at her again.
"You know what communism is? I mean, I've been all over the galaxy so far, and I didn't think that ideology survived one bit."
"I ran across it in a book or two," Magnus explained. "It's always talked about as a possible ideology that could work, but every time I found every society that tried it, it usually ended up ruined or at the brink of collapse." she concluded, shaking her head.
"It sounds like about every system you Mon-Keigh come up with," came a female voice from further in the library, drawing all eyes in that direction. My hand went to Scornspitter as I wondered who the hell was in here with us.
The clacking of heels and the approaching shadow soon revealed an Eldar woman, standing at something like 7 to 8 feet tall. She approached, her helmet off, revealing a familiar face.
"You," I said, pointing at her with my open right hand, and she smiled.
"Oh yes, I remember you. You're the one who killed that Ork Warboss. The one that was convinced it was a Krork. That was fun," She said.
"Fun? How exactly is unleashing those monstrosities on the Wheel of Fire fun?"
"It got them removed," she replied, "and it showed me the mettle of your people. Do you know how many empires have tried to rebuild humanity in the last 5000 years? A lot more than you probably realize. If they can't handle something as simple as the Wheel of Fire, then there wasn't any reason for us to even look at them."
"Well, good for you. What are you doing here?"
"Sister, why are you asking the Eldar anything? Just blow her head off," Lorgar said, reaching towards the doorway where her mace lay.
"It would be pointless of you to try. After all, things are taking an unexpected path of our visions and expectations for this conflict. You're not supposed to be here for another hundred years, according to some of our wisest seers."
I blinked before saying, "You guys have future sight?"
"And the galaxy is many eons old, Mon-Keigh," the Eldar woman said with a nod before adding, "Yes, we have future sight. This world once belonged to a trade federation that had good relations with the old Aeldari Empire. That's why they have aped quite a lot of our culture, as you could say. Unfortunately for you, they also adopted quite a large bit of our stockpile of information that we, at the time, thought was good to share with your people—methods of controlling the Warp and such—before we realized we were mistaken in those beliefs."
"You mean before you accidentally created a Warp storm that was involved in ending the existence of the Human Federation and your own Empire?" Magnus pointed out.
"Yes, something like that. But can we not dredge up ancient woes? I mean, come on, you weren't even alive back then."
"Were you?" I asked.
"Haha, girls, girls, you know the saying 'a woman never tells you her age.'"
All three of us let out a groan of absolute pain at the comment that she let out. We all looked at each other with a frown of agreement that this was the most annoying statement she could have said before focusing back on her.
"Okay, so this was a world that traded with your ancient Eldar Empire. Cool. Why are you here?"
"Well, it's quite simple. In the visions my masters have seen, the Wolf and the Mage would come to blows, and the Wolf would burn down the library. The Wolf appears to not be doing that, which is a problem."
"And why is that?" I asked, adding, "Why would I even want to burn down this library? There are probably ancient secrets here that we can use to better humanity."
"Because there are ancient evils too. I guess I'll give you a little bit of interesting information since watching you try to figure out the intricacies of the Warp is akin to watching a child stumble around in the dark," she cleared her throat before continuing, "Every time you use a rune to do something, you empower that rune with a certain Warp existence. This doesn't mean much at first, but the longer and more consistently you do it, the stronger and more established that Warp presence gets, until eventually the difference between an empowered rune and a Warp demon starts breaking apart."
"You cannot create a Warp demon from a set of runes, that's insane," Magnus said, banging her staff on the ground.
"You can believe that or you can believe your eyes in the next 20 or 30 minutes. I believe the 'Phoenix King' , how presumptuous, has been evacuated to this very building, and he's looking for one last gambit to win this conflict."
"What do you mean?" I asked, standing back up and stepping forward.
The Eldar looked at me, specifically at my chest, before saying with what sounded like jealousy, "Have you gotten bigger?" Then she shook her head and continued, "Never mind. I mean it's quite simple. He is looking for a book, a book that has been used for generations to control the Warp. A book that was so powerful that if it were ever to be opened, it would just unleash a demon into whatever creature opened it. This is the concern that you probably have not realized yet. Building your safety nets out of runes will work for some time, but unless those runes are very strong, they will eventually become tainted with the Warp in one way or another—perhaps a demon, perhaps something else. Either way, unless he finds that book soon, you'll have a demon to fight. So, I would recommend you find him quickly. Or if you want, you could just light this place on fire, as the vision said you would. It would make everything much easier."
Magnus smashed their fist into the ground, saying, "We will not burn down this Temple of Knowledge. There is much we can learn from this, even if some of it apparently belongs to your ilk."
"Much of your knowledge belongs to us originally. I mean, yes, some of it might come from other sources, but there are quite a lot of similarities, I would say. After all, Little Miss Wolf's runes are very much derivative of Eldar runes."
Magnus looked at me, and I tried to explain, "I used what was already on Fenris. There's some evidence Fenris was once property of the Eldar."
"There's no 'once.' It was always the property of the Aeldari. We just lost track of it. As soon as we figure out where Fenris is, I will have to have some conversations about you taking one of our maiden worlds."
"Maiden worlds?" Lorgar said, tapping her cheek before saying, "Wait, aren't those the worlds that we just avoid for the most part because they're too harsh and are covered in primitive Eldar?"
"They're not primitives. They just like to be very down to earth and not go up into space like some of us. They figure the best way to avoid the failings of the Eldar Empire is to reject the Aeldari Empire in all its ways."
"Yeah, and what is your personal opinion on the other empires?" I asked. "I mean if we're going to be working with you on this little Phoenix King issue, perhaps you can explain to me why we should trust you."
"Well, for one, of all the other groups out there, mine has no problem with you taking over ownership of the Galaxy, as long as you leave us alone, let us do our little trade and floating about thing, and we'll just point you in the direction of any problem before it pops up."
"And your group is?" I asked, trying to clarify. After all, I kind of need to know a name in case I run into other groups.
"Craftworld Iyanden. We simply are trying to do the best for our people as we can. In these trying times of the post-empire age, we are not pirates like the Corsairs, and we are not devotees to the ancient empire like the Dark Eldar are becoming. We are simply Eldar."
"Meaning you have a high opinion of yourselves and a low opinion of us," Magnus pointed out, which got a chuckle from Lorgar.
"Yes, why else would I call you Mon-Keigh? But that's beyond the bounds of this conversation. If you're not going to hurry up and catch the Phoenix King, he's going to awaken the demon. I would hurry."
"All right fine, let's go," Magnus said, moving into the library. "I am not losing any of this knowledge."
Lorgar gave the Eldar a look of annoyance before following Magnus, leaving me alone with the Eldar for a moment. I started to walk before turning to the Eldar, saying, "By the way, a question. Why don't you deal with this if it's your ancient book that's fallen into the hands of the Phoenix Kings? If it's about to cause problems. Shouldn't you or one of your kin be the one taking care of it?"
"Oh, I wish I could. I really do, afterall it would be quite simple for me. But, think of this as another little test. After all, if you can't handle one little demon; how long would you be able to handle the real horrors waiting for you in the space beyond the world you know?"
"You do realize we fought the Rangda, right? Those Xenos are probably a lot worse than whatever this demon is you keep referring to."
I raised an eyebrow as she literally did that anime thing where they laughed while putting their hand backwards in front of their mouths.
"You have such a limited understanding, young one. There are things out there that will turn your hair white and then fall out because your face will be melting-off just from looking at it. But don't let me distract you. There's a demon here, and a little word to the wise: amongst its abilities is fire. So, if you want to keep the so-called mysteries of this library intact, you're going to have to kill it fast or kill the wielder before he unleashes it."
"Or," I said, tapping the communication device on my men of Fenris, "this place is about to get a lot hotter in here, and we don't want to lose any of the knowledge."
There was a response of, "Yes, Wolf King," so I was rather audible over the communication.
"Backup plan. That's one step in showing you have the abilities needed for this coming future, a lot better than what was predicted of you, that's for sure."
I pointed at her and said, "We're going to have a very deep talk about this future talk you keep bringing up, 'cause I want to know what you know."
"Defeat the demon, and if I'm still here, I may tell you a little tidbit of what I know."
I made a sound of annoyance before leaving, knowing very well that she would likely be gone by the time this was over.
I quickly caught up with Magnus and said, "You might want to have some of your men enter the facility to start collecting books. This enemy is fire-based, as 'Phoenix' would imply. We could lose some of the knowledge in the fight that's about to happen."
Magnus nodded before touching their wrists, sending a signal to their own men to get to work. Then, we moved on, trying to find our way through the library.
Traveling through the stacks of books was daunting. This place was basically a massive byzantium labyrinth that it's very possible a person could find themselves lost in here for the rest of their life. I estimated as we searched from one indistinct area to another, that trying to find the location of the last Phoenix King was going to be difficult using conventional methods, especially if he was moving around searching for their final trump card.
I stopped for a second to smell the air, relying more on the instincts and abilities that the Warp had given me to try and locate him instead of just looking and patience alone.
Now one would assume that I wouldn't be able to track the Phoenix King as they would be able to mask their Warp presence to blend in with their surroundings. But that would be an assumption that was wrong. Afterall books had a certain smell, one of old parchment, ink and leather. So, once you remove those variables, all you need to do is just look for something odd, unexpected, such as a lot of perfume. Now, I could recognise the scent of my two sisters, the distinct combination of perfume, sweat and their personal Warp signatures . No, the perfume that I smelt was fancy, the smell only found on gaudy nobility or in this case fake royalty with more money than sense.
"This way," I called, charging in the direction towards the back of the library stopping every now and then to reconfirm the scent trail, quickly finding a metal gate that had been closed and sealed up. I barrelled through it, sending the metal door bouncing down the hallway a bit as I kept moving, rounding a corner and finding the Phoenix King, a book already in his hands, open.
"You can't stop me, you monsters! I will save the Ark Reach Cluster! The people in this place will be reborn through me. Humanity will be saved, but the ancient teachings of the great Aeldari Empire will be saved, and you will be driven from the light of the world back into the dark reaches of barbarism where you belong."
I blinked before just raising Scornspitter and firing a bolt round through his chest, his cavity exploding outward and covering a bit of the forbidden book section that he was in with gore.
"Well, that was easy," Lorgar said as she came up behind me, followed by Magnus, the body falling to the ground and mumbling something as blood gushed from the wound.
"Too easy," Magnus warned, raising her polearm and watching the corpse.
"What? Do you really think the dead can come back to life?" Lorgar retorted.
At that statement, the corpse incinerated itself in flames as a flaming bird ripped itself from the body. It quickly grew larger, setting some of the books around it on fire and pushing the shelves out of their location to the left and right.
I gave Lorgar a quick exasperated look, which she returned with a sheepish pout.
"I have been reborn!" the creature called before looking at us and firing off a breath of flame directly at us. Magnus and I both raised our hands, creating shields and channeling the flame away and up into the roof.
Before going on the attack, I fired off Scornspitter repeatedly into the creature, while Magnus summoned powerful bolts of blue lightning from the air above her and sent it directly into the creature.
The creature moaned, emitting a pained bird-like cry before backing off.
"You creatures of the Anathema will not stop me," it called, grabbing a part of the bookcase and ripping it from the wall, throwing it at me.
Lorgar stepped in, smashing her mace into the thing and flinging it back at the creature.
It hit the creature and set itself aflame, but for the most part, did no damage.
"Okay, how do we kill this thing?" Lorgar asked as I aimed Scornspitter at it and unleashed all the bolts inside of it until the creature was forced to back up.
"Overwhelming force," Magnus called. "I've run into one or two of these things in the past. You have to just pummel it until it dies. It may seem hard, but it's how you make sure these things stay dead."
"Overwhelming force, not impossible," I said, reaching for Gungnir and readying the spear.
I quickly channeled a piercing spell into it before launching the spear into the creature. The point embedded itself deeply into the creature's chest, causing it to pause for a moment as it realized what had happened, before finally screaming in agony. Its clawed hands reached out, grabbing onto the walls of the bookshelves, burning through the volumes there as it tried to find some sort of leverage to pull the spear out of its chest.
"Now is our chance. It's distracted," I called, drawing Mjalnar and Krakenmaw and charging the thing, intending to put a frozen runeblade through its chest and turn this damn thing to ice.
The creature saw me coming and smashed its hand down onto the ground, yelling something I couldn't make out. It didn't sound like any language I knew, but it was probably a garbled mess of Low Gothic and pained screams.
Whatever it was, a wave of fire rushed out, smacking into all three of us and the walls, setting everything on fire.
Everything felt wrong as the flames engulfed me. I could feel the flames lick and burn my body of course but there was something else as the flame danced creating mesmerizing shapes and strange sounds, until eventually…
M**.***
Tanya Russ
*******
Instead of the battlefield I was in, there was another one, some other planet covered in pyramids stretching almost to the sky. In some places, they were beautiful architecture, though very Egyptian, not something I'd ever seen before. Around me was in contrast to the beauty I saw, as all around me was pure carnage as I saw my Wolves of Fenris fighting against the Thousand Sons. There was no quarter, no mercy on this battlefield as the two sides fought to see who could butcher the other wholesale first. Why this was happening was not apparent. All I could say with any clarification was that amongst the warriors of Fenris, there were women in gold, tall women taller than any woman who'd been given a treatment by the Valkyrie process or had failed the standard Fenrisian Gene-Seed implementation. They had strange bald heads except for a topknot of hair that flowed in the wind while carrying large execution-style swords. They were cutting their way through the Thousand Sons as if they were nothing. They seemed to cause some sort of disturbance amongst the Thousand Sons, as if their very presence weakened them and allowed the Wolves of Fenris to butcher them even easier.
"What the hell am I looking at?" I said, still feeling the flames burning all around me. As I tried to figure out when and where this was, the armor looked slightly different. Could this be a vision of the future? The Eldar had said that they had the ability to view the future. Though why did this Phoenix have the ability to force it on other people? A good question, one that I doubted the creature would be very kind in explaining itself as I murdered it. So, I took another step towards where I thought the creature was so I could kill it, trying to make my senses go beyond the fire that was burning at my hair and skin. Thank goodness Primarch skin was tough. I could just barely smell what I think might have been the creature about 30 paces in front of me. So, I continued to move in that general direction, holding tight to my sword, ignoring what my eyes were seeing as this combat continued.
"Magnus, come out here, you traitor!" came a voice from my right, forcing me to look in that direction out of sheer volume. I saw a man, the very same man I'd seen at the end of the Rangdan campaign, wild blonde hair blowing in the wind as he approached with several Fenris Wolves on what appeared to be some sort of central battlefield.
This man was definitely a Primarch by nature, just on size alone, much taller than I had ever been. But who the hell was he, and why was he calling out Magnus?
The question was not answered as the vision faded before my eyes, and a new one appeared, one of Lorgar smashing her mace into the face of the Phoenix creature. She was glowing gold with some unknown Warp power as she began to beat the damn beast into bloody chunks, screaming with anger as she did so.
I quickly reached out my hand, and Gungnir flew itself towards my hand. Behind me Magnus slowly stalked towards the downed Phoenix,,her face grim as she came up beside me channeling energy into her blade before delivering the coup de grace that caused the creature to explode into bloody chunks.
"Is it dead now?" Lorgar asked, holding her mace unsteadily, face tense and unnaturally pale.
"I believe so," I said before taking out my sword and casting a freezing spell on the larger corpse parts.
"But there's nothing wrong with doublechecking, is there?" I said, smashing the frozen chunks into red slush.
"Are you okay, Lorgar?" Magnus inquired, putting her hand on her shoulder. "You seem out of sorts."
"Yeah, I saw something, that's all," she said, patting her armor down to get some of the burnt debris off it. Thankfully, it would seem the architects had the foresight to install a proper fire suppression system, as they soon came on, flooding the area with artificial rain and putting the flames out.
"Seems like the lessons of Alexandria have been remembered," I noted, which got a nod from Magnus, then an odd look as she said, "How do you know about Alexandria?"
"I like to read," I said matter-of-factly, folding my arms.
"Hmm, well anyways, this is interesting," Magnus said, taking a knee to look at the remnants of the creature, poking and prodding it before saying, "Interesting, I've never come across this sort of creature before in life or in study. Perhaps there's something of substance to that Eldars idea, that words can give form to creatures infused too long."
"Yeah, that would make sense. I ran into similar creatures that don't exactly fit the standards of a regular Warp denizen if there even is such a thing. I think this would fall into the same category as the creatures found deep under the earth on Fenris, definitely Warp-touched but not themselves from the Warp, if you know what I mean. Probably affected by the Warp over a long period of time as well. So if animals can be affected by it, I guess it's possible for inanimate objects to be affected by the Warp running through them," I said, tilting my eyes to look at Gungnir, which I had laid against the nearby wall. "Considering that the Emperor has at least the knowledge and ability to create such Warp-based weaponry, I would say the Emperor is aware of this as well."
"Hmm, that's an annoying thought. I'd thought I learned everything from the Emperor," Magnus said, standing up and brushing herself off before adding, "Well, anyway good work Lorgar. Training yourself in spellcraft to empower your weapons with Warp energy so you could break through hardier magic defenses." Magnus gave a little clap. "Impressive. How long have you been working on that?"
"By faith, I wasn't," she said, looking at her still slightly glowing mace in wonder. "I just believed that if I stayed true to the Emperor, I would break through what I was seeing and smash that thing over the head, destroying it before it could cause any more harm to us or anyone else. It would seem I was right."
I raised an eyebrow before saying, "No training on either spellcraft or tech, and yet you still managed that. Magnus, you definitely need to get her a copy of your book, and perhaps one of mine on Fenrisian runes, because from my point of view, she is exactly at the start of her training, and just awoken her psychic potential for the first time."
"I agree," Magnus said, clapping her hands. "Oh, it's so good not to be the only one with Warp abilities. Finally, I knew the rest of us had the potential, but it will take time for some of us to adapt to use them. Who knew that just sending you to fight a demon would be the necessary requirement to push you beyond your limit and awaken your powers? We must get you well trained and make sure your mind is solid like a fortress. These creatures tend to find and exploit weaknesses in one's mentality."
"Solid like a fortress? I'm going to have to steal that for my book," Lorgar said as she leaned against a bookcase.
"Huh, no wait, there's something that could be good about her idea of making a book for the average citizen," I said, an idea starting to form in my mind. "If you say, impart the teachings on how to defend yourself from Warp manifestations in the writings of an average book, would that not help people in everyday life to avoid Warp manifestations? You don't have to give them the exact details on how the Warp works, just how to defend themselves from unwanted influences."
"Hmmm, there is an idea there,"Magnus said, tapping her chin. "We would need to be specific with what knowledge we place into the book along with the correct writing so that we get the correct lessons across, but there is something here that we can work on, something that could help the average citizen avoid this." Magnus noted, "make sure to send me a copy of your book when you get it done, Lorgar. I have an idea on what you could add to the text to help prospective psykers keep themselves from, well, becoming a problem."
"I'm not sure about that. My book is supposed to help you strengthen the soul, not cut yourself off from the Warp," Lorgar protested slightly. I cut her off before she could continue, "You already have to be careful with the way you're writing it because you don't want to make the Emperor come off as a god. If you were to have something in there that the Emperor would approve of, say the basics of protecting yourself against Warp body thievery, let's call it, Father may be more forgiving of the rest of the content of your book because at least it does something good for the people of the Imperium."
Lorgar nodded her head, finally seeming to come to an agreement on this idea. "You know, you have a point, sisters. I don't exactly like the idea of putting in content I'm not sure of, but perhaps I should become sure of it. As you said, you would love to send me books on your understanding of the Warp. Perhaps I can use that to make a stronger text, perhaps something that can protect people from these entities. What do we call them, anyways? The Emperor has always been vague on exactly what term he wants to use for them. I'm pretty sure he dislikes the term 'demon'."
"Primordial annihilators," Magnus affirmed. "I only used the word 'demon' because the Eldar used it, and well, we were dealing with what the other had started, so might as well use their term. But it is an agreement that we shouldn't use such terms that give these creatures power in some way. From what I understand, you think of the word 'demon,' you think of demons, you think of what you've seen in the history of the world when people talk about demons. This somehow strengthens these creatures, depending on which color they are."
"Hmm, again, then we have to make sure that whatever language is used in your book doesn't unintentionally empower any one of these Primordial Annihilators regardless of color," I pointed out. "Since we're all considering writing books. Maybe we should just make sure to co-author these books, send them around to each other, make sure that we aren't accidentally creating something that would, you know, go against the goals of the Imperium."
"I don't know about that, guys. It seems a bit unneeded. I think I know what I'm doing," Lorgar said, smiling, before Magnus shook her head.
"Don't think of it as if I was looking over your shoulders. She's also referring to my book, and I'm sure considering two of us are writing books, you'll probably take up a third, which means you'll have the ability to look over my book and her book. What would you make a book about, Tanya?"
I thought for a moment before saying, "Everything about the logistics of civilization. How to set up a prospering civilization from various stages of advancement. I think I'm pretty good at that, considering I took Fenris from something that was probably close to the Iron Age all the way to the verge of steam power before the Emperor showed up. Granted, I was probably going to have to steal that steam power, but hey, it would have worked out."
"Interesting thoughts. We should see about other Primarchs. I'm sure others have an interest in making their own books. Perhaps we should form a book club," Magnus laughed, and I joined in.
Lorgar smiled in agreement before saying, "All right, I'm in."
"Wonderful," Magnus said before adding, "Now we just need to find out who else is interested in trading books."
"It seems we're all decided," I said matter-of-factly, before adding, "Now that the fire is out, we should probably get back to categorizing the stuff and getting our men to get this stuff packed up to be shipped back up to your ship."
"Sounds like a plan," Magnus said.
Magnus the Red
Photep
I shivered as I moved through the ship towards my quarters, trying not to dwell on what I had seen in that brief flash, unleashed by that creature. Everything burned around me; a vision had unfolded in my mind. It depicted a battle between my Thousand Sons and white-armored Space Marines. I couldn't clearly see who they were; they were obscured by trench works dug deep into the earth, unleashing hell on the enemy, my men. But my men weren't all alone. There were also white and blue-armored Space Marines moving to the trenches, supporting my red-armored soldiers with proficient melee combat. I saw their symbol in the vision, but I didn't recognize it: a jaw biting down on a planet. There was no Legion with that marking, and so, I was confused. I had no idea why I had been shown such a thing. Worse yet, I recognized a few things about the planet we had been on.
It was not an unnamed planet, not a planet that had not been graced by the Imperial Glory. No, it was my homeworld, Prospero, wracked and aflame, pyramids collapsing in on each other under brutal orbital bombardment.
Some unknown fate awaited my homeworld, a fate that required the efforts of my own Legion and another, unfamiliar one to defend it. And in this vision, one Legion of one of my brothers was attacking. The only good news about that was that I was half sure this was just a fabricated dream, manipulated through time by the Primordial Annihilators to sow distrust. The Emperor had mentioned possibilities like this to me, that things like this could happen, that's why he had built such strong defenses against the Warp in his mind and tried to stay as calm and non-emotional as possible. If one could master their mind and emotions, they could control their fates and prevent the Warp from interfering with their plans, or so he said.
I had no reason not to believe him, but I also had no idea if I should be fearful of this dream being true or take it as a vision that would not come to pass. Either way, at this moment, there was no Legion with that emblem within the Imperium, no warriors wearing white and blue that I could recall. As long as that remained true, this dream was just a dream, a vision sent out by that creature to buy itself time as it recovered. I guessed it was always possible that there was more to it, that's what I even needed to be on the lookout for. Who were the Legions that attacked me? Who was the Legion that was defending me, and why did the attack happen?
Why did that attack happen? What had caused it? Those questions were going to haunt me for eternity, but there was not much I could do about that matter. Perhaps I was being a little bit too worried about it. Again, these were false visions, things that were probably going to be used by the Primordial Annihilators to try and break us apart. And again, what if the vision was of what the Annihilators wished for? What if they had already begun their influence operations to try and cause problems between the Legions? What if that was what they would eventually resort to?
Ah, I needed to meditate on this matter for a while. This campaign was over, and there were some cleanup operations that needed to be organized. Perhaps dividing these planets among the three of us and three to the Imperium would work; that had been discussed before our little dispute over my lost men. I knew they weren't the only ones; there had been a few others that I had to clean up. Not to mention, I needed to work on the newest portion of my book to spread information among the libraries on how to build librariums across all the legions. We needed to make sure this knowledge was not lost, and a way to ensure that it was not lost was to use Tanya's idea of creating redoubts of Human civilization on each of the Primarch's homeworld..
Perhaps this library should be not only a repository of psychic knowledge but also of knowledge about civilization. That way, each chapter could help rebuild civilization more effectively, drawing from the experiences of other chapters. A multi-role organization would probably be easier to present to the Emperor as well. Single-role organizations could become too devoted to their cause, whereas a multi-role approach would be more versatile and less likely to fall into blind adherence to previous works.
Maybe my brain was just tired from this long campaign and having to defend itself against psychic attacks. I needed some rest before I could tackle it this coming morning. For now, I pushed open my door and headed for bed, dropping into it. I figured I'd worry about changing back out of my power armor in the morning. Though before I could get too comfortable I pulled out a satchel on my side and placed it on my desk carefully so that I did not damage the gift Tanya had given me just before we parted ways. A small smile graced my lips as I pulled the gift out, they were a pair of sturdy fur lined wrist guards engraved with Fenrisian runes she enchanted that if channeled into they would provide a defensive shield, which was a simple but interesting use of runecraft to say the least, an example of Tanya's rune magic to study was priceless but it being useful was just an extra benefit.
Lorgar Aurelian
Fidelitas Lex
"Come out, traitor! I know you're in there!" That voice, filled with such hatred, sent a shiver down my spine. A hand bursted towards me through the wooden door like it was nothing but paper. That hand, no claw was barely human and more like the talons of a bird of prey, ripping at the wood in such a way that I knew there was a cold, deadly purpose behind that bestial visage. It continued chasing me through the dark dilapidated structure shouting curses and burning me with its red eyes filled with hatred. This monster was relentless, no matter where I ran it would find me so it could stab me, gut me and break me. The worst thing was I knew I could only run. There was no confrontation, no heroics, no chance to turn the tide, only two options to run or die.
I had mostly told the truth when I was asked about what I'd gone through with the Phoenix demon creature. Mostly, I left out any mentions of the vision, the dark creature trying to reach me from the blocked-off hallway. I kept that to myself because it had instilled such fear in me that I didn't know how to handle it. Me a Primarch; they were not supposed to feel fear. Yet here I was, shaking like a leaf in the wind. Why was I afraid? And… and why do I get an overwhelming sensation that the creature was right?
I shook my head, trying to dispel those thoughts. There was no reason to dwell on such things. The campaign was won; soon it would be under Imperium rule, and humanity could begin the work of converting the remains into something more suitable for the Imperium. At least that much was certain.
I wasn't exactly thrilled about the others wanting to interfere with my book. It was my book, my magnum opus and I should be allowed to write it the way I saw fit. However, I understood that my sisters only wanted to help, and perhaps another pair of eyes would catch any details that I might have missed. This book would be the greatest creation in the Imperium's history, and leaving it to chance that there might be some mistake due to my hubris was not something I could allow. Hubris was not the path I wanted to tread. After all, the Emperor didn't believe he could build and rule the Imperium on his own; he had gone out of his way to create the Primarchs to ensure its strength and longevity. Now, as one of his Primarchs, it was my duty – to build a book that would bind the Imperium together for all time, keeping it strong even in the darkest of days. Hopefully, I just had to find the right words so that the Emperor and time itself would accept it, and it could be spread among the people without issue.
My mind drifted back to that creature clawing at the door, swearing death and vengeance upon me for some unknown treachery. I shivered, trying to push the thought away. Whatever that thing was, it was probably a vision of lies sent to me by the creature, some falsehood implanted into my mind by that Phoenix. Right, besides, what creature could make a Primarch so afraid? Afterall, I had already seen some of the greatest monsters in the galaxy. There was no way any of these things could instill fear in me. Obviously, it was a fake, an illusion, some foul interpretation implanted in my mind to force me to feel fear. The only thing I could probably fear was one of my siblings, but they would not harm me . One of my siblings? No, stop, I would not entertain such a thought. None of us would be so craven enough to turn traitor.
No such thing could come to pass. No such lie would become reality. Shaking my head, I refocused on my writing, looking down at my book with a smile. I wrote down some of my thoughts in the notebook next to my main book. After all, it paid to get down exactly what you wanted to write first before putting it into the finished product.
I wondered what I could add to this work now that I knew a bit more about the understanding of the Warp. Were there certain symbols that could be used to draw power from the Warp and make the average person more likely to survive encounters with its creatures? Could you master faith in such a way that you could defend yourself against these monsters? That's an interesting notion. Reaching over, I grabbed Tanya's book of runes, looking through it. It was very mathematical, not really something you'd associate with faith, but there were a few interesting things. Several runes also had connections to words. Interestingly enough, a few of them were about protection from the darkness, protection from other things. If runes were a way to master faith in another way, perhaps if you implemented some of these runes into the book's iconography to represent the protection that the Emperor provided, it would grow in power and create stronger runes to protect the Empire from the things in the dark. I quickly scribbled down some symbols into my ledger and made a mental note to track down similar things from the other legions, protection runes or similar that they used. After all, if they were good for the legions, they were good for the average Imperial citizen, weren't they? Everyone could use a little protection from the darkness now and again. If this book was going to be the light that would reunite faith in humanity, pushing us forward into the new millennium with superiority over the darkness that came before it, then they needed as much protection and light as possible. Perhaps there's another word I should look for, more words about light and protection that I could slip in here and there. I don't want to overpopulate it, though. I'll need to narrow that down to some of the more important ones. Maybe a second book of supporting markers. That's a thought for another time. For now, I'll just finish translating the words that I found useful from this book. Tanya gave me access to the ledger, and I'll see what happens from there. It would still be years before this book would be ready for print, and I needed to make sure it was perfect. So, back to work I went.
Writers note: well interesting very interesting what does it all mean! So many things… I guess let you all try to figure it out.
Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…
Edited by: Helsted, golden
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Reviews
TOPCAT-59: thank you for review
Anthony: here you go
end5: thank you
Binaryrecord274: for now they have
Spartastic 4: yeah not sure what happen there
Black Doberman: it will be fine...
evilstatistic1: thank you
blasterscope:haha man your going to get everything your asking for whgen you catch up
The Dark Sapphire: true
Zero:you fine out next time you read
Wynn Silver: same
Fan2322: kinda there omake in comments of Ao3 i kinda consider a canon that implies that visha reincanated and is one the valkies that hangs around tanya.