**Authors note: This chapter was initially attached to the previous chapter, Am'Erika the Beautiful. I split it into two parts for a better flow. My updates are likely to be somewhat inconsistent for the near future, but I write when I can. Thank you for your readership, everyone!**
I woke up in a cold sweat in my room, the Key warm on my chest. I clutched it, finding its surface comforting. Wouldn't the pylons cut off any Warp activity? I groaned and sat up. Maybe it was just a nightmare? I pulled on the chain of the Key, and it lengthened so that I could study it again. It was warm, as if it had been in the sun, and while I couldn't be sure, it felt as if a small amount of luminescence was playing across the round opaline stone.
I turned toward the clock, and saw that it read 0555 hours, which meant that I still had some time before Null's breakfast call, so I decided to put myself together and take a walk to shake off the filth I felt after dreaming of Amnaich (or "Am'Erika" if the dream was accurate). I picked up the pile of folded new clothes left for me by Null, and walked to the bathroom to clean up.
After a quick shower, I dressed myself. These clothes appeared to be a sturdily crafted set of form fitting dark trousers, and a tailored black shirt that felt as if it were made just for me. I quickly braided my wet hair again in the mirror, still not used to the cluster of stark white strands emerging from the scalp over my right eye. It did look cool, at least. A dark grey officers jacket tied stylishly to complete the military Imperium look. My tall boots easily zipped over my trousers. The fit of the clothes was absolutely remarkable, I thought, perfectly sized. These might have been Evanora's clothes again, I thought. I was in her body after all. Checking myself out in the bathroom mirror, I looked vaguely like a World War 2 German officer, minus all of the Nazi regalia. The aesthetic of the Imperium was always a little suspect, honestly, but I could admit that I looked sharp, and the jacket was warm in this chilly place. For security, I picked up my black dagger and wrapped its scabbard and belt around my hip. The silver scissors lay at the bottom of my bundle, glinting in the pale artificial light.
"I wonder what these are for?" I asked myself aloud, picking up the shears. I decided to take the scissors with me, placing them in my front breast pocket.
This whole area was like some kind of technological ghost town, I thought as I passed yet another blank-faced servitor walking down the hall. Lights would flicker on dimly as I approached each one, and my steps were almost too loud in the pre-dawn darkness. They weren't as bright as the lights I had seen yesterday, and only about as luminous as a night light or a few candles per bulb. The Key itself seemed to be glowing with a dim inner light, but it wasn't enough to see anything by.
The halls in this central building were made out of heavy bricks of some kind of dark concrete material, which made the atmosphere feel almost like a prison. This place appeared very sturdy, and I passed rooms cluttered in strange metal machines covered in dust from years of disuse. In the rear of the floor I explored, I discovered an elevator, and after taking note of where I was on the floor map on the wall next to the elevator doors, I hit the "down" button.
My curiosity on the existence of a giant eagle spaceship somewhere below greatly interested me, and seeing that this elevator offered 19 different floors to choose from (I had been on floor 14), I decided to press the button for a random lower floor. Null had said that I was "free to explore", so as long as something wasn't closed off, I felt justified in my urge to investigate.
When I pressed the button, the elevator refused to immediately respond. I wondered if it was just very old, or if maybe it needed some kind of key or code to go to certain floors. After waiting a few seconds, I pressed the button for the fifth floor again, and received a mild electrical shock. Yikes, I thought, pulling my hand back. But now, it seemed to work. The elevator lurched, and started downward. It descended below with smooth quickness. The dim light of the space was supplemented by the glow of the Key, which had not ceased since I had woken up from my nightmare. As the elevator slowed to a stop on the fifth floor, I briefly examined the artifact around my neck. Since the pylon network was currently operational, any sort of mystical energy should not be useable, so I didn't know what was causing the light from the strange stone.
The doors opened briskly into a rough passage that appeared to be a mined tunnel of grey and tan stone. The passage was a few yards wide and about double my height, and a few paces forward, it made a downward turn to the left, where I could see no further. The air was cool and dry, and the noise of the elevator opening echoed across the walls of the cave. As before, when I walked, lanterns would buzz on, illuminating the way from where they hung suspended above.
"Alright, don't get lost," I said to myself. I stepped off the elevator, and it closed behind me.
If the silence upstairs wasn't upsetting enough, the deadness of the air around me here was even worse. I stepped forward into the passageway. As the caged lanterns above me flickered on, I took notice of the beauty of the patterns on the walls. Bands of sandy earthy color ran across the surface, suggesting a time when the rock was once layers of silt, settling and compressing over thousands of years.
I was a few steps in and examining the surface of the wall when a different light flickered at the corner of my vision, causing me to startle. I turned, my hand reflexively on the Key, which still dimly glowed. If the pylons failed again, I would always have to worry about daemons hunting me down, I thought nervously. I searched for what had caught my eye, and found nothing. Wherever it was, it seemed to be where the passage bent downward. Curious again, and holding the Key, I walked forward.
More lights flickered on as I stepped down the passageway, and an unusual light caught my attention, just out of sight to the left of the bend. As I turned the corner, I was surprised by seeing some sort of transparent projection, hanging like a ghost of thin golden light in the air, motionless above a flight of stairs that spiraled downward, carved directly into the rock. I stopped in my tracks.
The "ghost" wasn't facing me, and was turned downstairs. It appeared to be a man in his 30s wearing formal robes. He was thin and wore some kind of complex metal collar around his neck and shoulders. His hair was short and messy, sitting straight up on his head. Again, I was puzzled. Magic shouldn't have any ability to manifest here right now, and to test my theory, I attempted to push my senses into the surrounding area to see if they worked. I sensed a faint psychic warmth radiating from somewhere below. Was that the Retribution? The peculiar light emanating from the Key around my neck also seemed to increase slightly. Aside from the warmth under me, I didn't feel much of anything, but when I returned to full awareness a moment later, I saw the golden ghost turn around.
His expression was of surprise, which swiftly turned to delight. "It's you! It's the woman from my dreams! The Traveler!" The transparent man said, looking right at me. His expression was one of wonderment, and he clasped his hands together. "I can see you! Oh, I can see you! Have you come to help us, Traveler?"
"Who, me?" I responded in surprise. "Who are you? Are you a ghost?"
"No, I believe I am most certainly alive. I am projecting myself at the present. My body lays in meditation in my chambers," the ghost said, pointing a finger upwards. "You come to see me in spirit form, mighty one? I am blessed beyond my wildest hopes! Perhaps I can be a companion to you in your travels? Oh, praise the Emperor, you are here!" The ghost raised his hands in wild excitement. "I was right! Those Machine Cult fools were ignorant of my abilities!"
"Wait, who are you?" I asked again, confused at the happy manifestation. "I don't understand how I can see you. Isn't the pylon active?"
"Pylon?"
I pointed upward. "The giant black tower above us. You shouldn't be able to manifest. The thing that cuts off Warp energy. How are you here?"
The ghost man blinked in confusion, and then came to a realization. "Oh, you mean the blackstone tower! You mean it can be activated? Truly?" The ghost appeared overjoyed, clapping his hands in excitement. "We see wonders with you here already! I am blessed indeed!" he cried out, nearly tearful with joy as he began repeatedly bowing at me. "My name is Virgil, Traveler. I am chief representative of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica attached to the 99th Exploratory Fleet of the Adeptus Mechanicus under command of Archmagos Nemo. I am also a devoted researcher of the hidden knowledge of the myths of the Travelers. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance, one from beyond our universe! I must ask, mighty one, where can we find your physical body? Are you on this world?"
Something felt wrong here, I said as I observed the cheerful phantom. Glancing down, I noticed that the Key was glowing even brighter now, and its glow was the similar transparent gold as the spirit standing in front of me. Was the Key doing this? I touched its warm surface, wondering what to do.
"What is that you wear? It bears a similar radiance to the Great Eagle. It has the same shadow in the Warp, the same astral light. From below, I feel the Great Eagle call for it. Yes! I see it now! You travel with the key to the Great Eagle! Is that is how we will find you? Where is your body so that we may find you, mighty one? Help us so that we may unlock the mystery below, I beg you!" The ghost man pointed at the glowing artifact hanging from my neck.
"I'm not out of my body," I said sternly, clutching the Key protectively. It felt as if it was getting even warmer. "I'm right here. You've got it backwards. To me, you're the ghost, and you still shouldn't be able to manifest here."
Virgil took on a thoughtful expression. "Mmm, perhaps, it is through time that I see? The echoes of forward and behind? And those fools assigned me as a Theta! Far greater, far greater!" After a brief bout of emotion, Virgil calmed himself. He fixed his watery eyes on me. "It matters not. Traveler, it is good that you are here, either in past, present, or future. It means that the turning of the wheel begins again, and that hope has come for mankind. Please aid me in the examination of the Great Eagle that sleeps below. It is like nothing we have seen. Perhaps you know of it, since you hold the key? Maybe you know things we don't?"
"What do you want me to do? I'm not sure I can really do much if you're a ghost," I said, looking around the silent passageway.
"Simple as this. I will focus my energy on your unique Traveler's soul, and I will bring you to the Great Eagle!"
"Wait, you guys haven't been able to actually see inside the ship?" I asked, remembering Null's words. The tech-priest did, however, mention a psyker who had died investigating it...
Before I could react, the ghost man lunged for my wrist, and I felt myself get pulled by what felt like a surge of water, lifting me up and out of my body. I was spirited away with the strange man.
"Come with me. Let me show you the wonders we have uncovered so far!" Virgil said as I found myself flitting through half transparent tunnels suddenly filled with workers, officers, and all manner of people. Their images shimmered like water as we flew insubstantial through the tunneled space. None of them noticed us as we sunk through floors and ceilings, and we emerged over a large golden surface that had a glow similar to the Key. It appeared to be some kind of giant talon a few times my height resting on the stone floor. Bright shadows of what I assumed were people were gathered around the giant golden claw, talking and gesticulating toward it. It was so big that I couldn't make out the rest of it. As I held Virgil's shadowy hand, I noticed that my own insubstantial form grasping his was now a glittering bright gold, making his own shade appear dim in comparison. While Virgil's shade was similar, I took note that my shining astral form was the precise gleaming shade as the Key.
Everything I was seeing here was both remarkable and overwhelming. The perception of all the flickering souls moving around was a lot to take in, and I simply stood in silence for a moment, trying to get my bearings as I watched all the busy ghosts move about. Virgil beamed in pride at what he was seeing. As I pushed my awareness outward to try to see more, I spied a few darker things watching near the edge of what I could perceive, their eyes hungry and malevolent, their mouths whispering curses and gossip. Instinctively, I turned my awareness away, but instead, my vision was forcefully pulled toward a shape that was oddly coherent in this mess of spiritual sights and sounds. He was standing unmoving, a gash of dark power in this rushing sea of humanity around me. There was something inherently wrong about this figure's energy, I felt. The shape then noticed me, and made eye contact.
I knew who it was. My ghostly form rippled with a primal chill that I felt in the very core of my being. If I had been breathing, my breath would have been caught in my throat.
It was a familiar pale man with blonde hair in a slim black suit, the same I had met for coffee in a previous vision. His golden eyes were amused as he grinned back at me with a wink. The entity vanished into a pool of wild colors among the shades surrounding him, unnoticed by everyone. He reappeared unseen beside Virgil who was still holding my hand, and whispered something into his ear while making pointed eye contact with me. As quickly as he had come into being, the dark man's form then evaporated into nothing, and the ghostly psyker turned toward me, still smiling.
Virgil had failed to notice the whispering Chaos entity, and I could still feel his happiness radiating off of him as he held my hand.
"I have just had an inspiration! Despite you being in spirit form, perhaps you and your key can pierce the skin of the Great Eagle? And now I realize that you can't appreciate the whole thing from here! I will help! I feel stronger already just by being around you!" I found my point of view dragged swiftly backward and upward, above the metal shape. I finally saw the entirety of what we were looking at.
Hearing it described and studying art of it drawn in a history book was nothing like actually seeing it. The ship was a great golden bird of prey, crafted with a sense of beauty and majesty. Its wings were spread but bent at the midpoint, as if it was an eagle standing protectively over a catch. Its head was bent downward, as if at rest, and I could make out that the head had three large eyes, left, right, and center, each closed as if asleep. I could somehow tell that it remained buried in places with semi-transparent layers of rock and dust, and had only been partially uncovered. It was absolutely massive, I could tell from my psyker sight floating above it. From here, I could definitely perceive a faint golden glow covering the entirety of the structure, which I assumed was some kind of shield.
"Incredible, isn't she? We still don't know much about her. We call her the Great Eagle since we cannot find a name anywhere. 212 meter wingspan, standing on talons of living gold at a height of 47 meters, and a length from beak to tail of 150 meters. We don't even have an estimate on weight since we cannot get a handle on her construction materials, and even who she was built by. The Great Eagle has been resting since late M29, we estimate. It has been argued that she is a void ship, crafted by an unknown hand, and forgotten here, buried in a flood. We have studied here for over a year now, but she evades all attempts to see within, even with my sight. We haven't heard a response from Holy Terra yet on what to do aside from excavation, so we scrabble in the dark. My intuition has suggested that she requires a key, something separate attuned to her unique energy. This artifact you bear, it is the key! It shines in the same manner as the eagle! I just know it! It is all connected, my research into Travelers, power beyond both Materium and Immaterium. Even Archmagos Nemo will be convinced, and my words will finally prove everything to the old coot!"
Without seeing anything change, I felt that we were now hovering near an area of the chest of the bird, where a few layers of scaffolding had been built. A ghostly servitor guard stood watch, but we were unseen.
"Here now! Touch the skin with the key! If my intuition is true, it should allow us passage!" Virgil instructed, the wonder never leaving his ghostly voice.
I did so, and while the ship didn't physically open, I did somehow sense that a barrier had been drawn away. The ghost wasted no time and clutched my hand, dragging me through the gap in the glowing shield cocooning the ship.
We hastily drifted through an interior of the eagle, observing its stylized craftsmanship and unique marriage between beautiful form and function. It seemed to meld both Aeldari grace and classical Imperial workmanship. I didn't have much time to appreciate the ship's interior as Virgil pulled me rapidly along. Images of passengers and officers past flickered in and out of existence, attending to unknown errands and speaking with their companions. Virgil was absolutely ecstatic. He was speaking a mile a minute, gushing at this discovery, vocalizing every miraculous thing he saw as we flew.
"Incredible! Remarkable! It is a majestic void ship, just as I suggested! Behold! I see an engine intake area to hold advanced energy cells! And look!" he pointed at a faint shadow of a man that I could not quite make out who was walking past him. "An ancient crew member! A shade and a memory of something either before or after! The marvel of it! The beauty and wonder of the Great Eagle!"
The images of the people walking inside this place were of varying brightness and appearance, but their forms were never substantial enough for me to get a good look to see a specific face. As Virgil wildly observed his surroundings, I was able to take note that not all of the shades seemed human, some walking on lithe digitigrade legs, or almost dwarf-like, squat and slow. Among the crew members phasing in and out of existence, a few briefly stood out. They were so bright that they were difficult to look at directly before fading away, only to phase back into existence somewhere else. Most disturbing was the appearance of a black oblivion in the shape of a human, which appeared to be chasing one of the bright souls through a hallway. My ghostly companion was distracted with observing some sort of computer terminal connected to a wall when the chase between the bright soul and the nothing shape passed right through my body, causing a few broken images of a leering silver skull and a man in a black body suit to flash in my mind. Their chase continued as Virgil turned around, his manic eyes glowing like hot embers in his insubstantial body.
Virgil's astral form appeared blurry around the edges now, and parts of him had begun to wisp away. He pulled my hand forward again, and started floating with speed toward random areas of the the ship, bypassing barriers, rooms, and a galley. "It must be somewhere! I must find it before I lose coherence!" he warbled. It appeared that he was beginning to destabilize. "Not much time now, not much time! How does it fly? The bridge! I need to find the bridge!" he cried out. He was dragging me around, pulling in seemingly random directions. "Concentrate on finding the bridge of the ship, Traveler! You hold the Key!"
Here goes nothing, I thought as I concentrated on where the bridge would be on an eagle-shaped ship.
The head, of course.
Suddenly, Virgil and I were both there, and I noticed the psyker's form was now beginning to rend and leak light. It appeared we were in the head of the eagle, and I was able to make out three chairs, each one positioned to look out one of the ship's eyes. I saw as he maniacally broke contact with me, and raced forward to the central chair, which appeared sturdier and somehow brighter than the others. The eye it faced was a pinched vertical ellipse, and was larger than the other two apertures. This seat was an elaborate metal construct that was absolutely covered in snaking wires, seals, and strange symbols. It pulsed with some kind of inner fire, and somehow, deep within, I heard the voices of many souls, whispering, laughing, and screaming at the edge of my psychic hearing. Everything was becoming so bright around me, and my ears began to ring. Somehow, I knew that Virgil was in trouble as I watched him pointedly investigate the mysterious center chair with maddened eyes. His ghostly form was fracturing, and was bleeding light as he stood over the throne.
"I know... I know what this is," he finally said, looking up at me in both horror and awe as one of his arms vanished into vapor. "It-it- is a chariot of fire! A throne for God! A chariot for the divine. God's justice made mobile! This ship... This ship is..." his projection was breaking apart. His last words were said in an ecstatic wail as he began to dissolve.
"Divine retribution!"
Those were the final words I heard when I woke up on the cold rocky floor of the cave on my side, my heart beating rapidly.
"Erika?" I heard a the familiar buzzing tenor voice of Null above me. I turned upward to see the tech-priest glaring at me, his artificial eyes cross and his mechadendrites looming over me like some sort of terrible spider. "Erika, I expressly forbade you from going to the locked off areas, and you ignore my instructions!"
I sat up, shivering and cold, my head was reeling from what I had seen. On my chest, the key felt hot, and I wrapped my hand tightly around it. My heart felt as if it would burst!
"Virgil!" I said wildly, unable to articulate my thoughts into much more. I retched on the floor.
Null stepped back from me, shock clearly visible in his eyes. I struggled to stand, and as I did, Null reached out with two of his longer metal appendages from his back and one of his extra arms to help me up. He was suddenly not very talkative, his eyes filled with wild surprise.
"That was his name! The psyker's name! The one you knew a long time ago! His name was Virgil!" I said, breathing heavily. "He saw inside the eagle! He saw, he saw..." I flashed back to the complex golden throne sitting on the bridge, glimmering with power. Seeing it directly had actually killed the psyker, I thought, my heart pounding. I struggled to stand, clutching my heart.
"You saw it too," Null whispered. "Come, we go to the kitchen. I have some spirits on hand. You must get your heart rate down. I suppose we know now that you're definitely stronger than dear Virgil was."
I weakly nodded, and began to fall back down. I was grateful when I felt Null's mechadendrites catch me, and I found myself being carried up the elevator.