Null had effortlessly carried me up the elevator and back to the floor we had been occupying. We entered a room that appeared to be an abandoned dining hall for officers, since it had fancier fixtures and large cushioned wingback chairs facing a dining table covered in dust. The lights flickered on as the tech-priest gingerly sat me down on a chair. I was a little delirious from what I had seen. "Wait a minute here. Don't run off again," Null hastily said, hustling into what I assumed was a kitchen on the far side of the room.
I sank into the chair, concentrating on lowering my heart rate. I began to experience a slight headache, and a few drips of blood fell from my nose. My hand found the Key again, and discovered that it had completely cooled.
"What in the...?" I began to say when the door to the kitchen burst open again and Null appeared, brandishing a green bottle.
"Here we are! A little bit of liquid courage and a celebratory toast in one draught! What a marvelous day it is!" Null walked excitedly to the table, carrying three short glasses. He began to pour a jade liquid into two of the glasses, leaving the third empty. To my right, I saw Jiminy buzz in through the doorway, and settle himself on the table across from me, his insect legs skittering a trail across the dusty surface of the tabletop.
"What's this?" I asked as I was offered a glass held in a metal clamp.
"Amasec. Do the games and books that tell our story in your universe speak of it? This one here is a very old vintage; it was in Virgil's personal items. He had saved this for when he would be proven correct, and now he has." Instead of sitting in a chair, the eccentric tech-priest seated himself directly on the dusty table. Comfortably sitting on a normal chair with all that crazy metal shit implanted in your back was probably not easy.
"He died in the eagle," I said, an image of Virgil's screaming astral form standing over that throne flashed behind my eyes again, and quickly, I drank the amasec. It was actually very similar to absinthe, but even sharper on the sinuses, which caused my bloody nose to get even worse. "This is good," I said, wincing from its harshness.
"Here now, you have a bleed," Null reached in to a pocket and handed me a grey rag that smelled suspiciously like turpentine. Not having much of a choice, I held my nose with it. "Your companion should be here momentarily. He has been called for."
"What happened down there, Null?"
"I think I know," the tech-priest answered as I saw Alberich walk through the door to the mess hall. He was wearing clothes similar to my Imperial military outfit, just like mine, even down to boots to fit his long legs. It was actually uncanny how well everything fit him, I thought muzzily as he approached the table. His outfit looked perfectly tailored.
Another unbidden image of Virgil screaming as he disintegrated flashed in my mind's eye, and I shuddered. Null was kind enough to top me off with more breakfast booze. I wished I had some ginger ale for this stuff, damn. The scent of turpentine from the rag certainly didn't help with the liquor's bouquet.
The Tzaangor walked to one of the empty wingback chairs, and sat down directly to my right. The tech-priest filled the third glass with a generous pour of amasec, offering it in one of his longer mechadendrites, which Alberich took in confusion. "Breakfast?" He asked, one feathery blue eyebrow raised.
"Just a little victory toast. I now have full confirmation that the greatest mystery is close to finally being solved! A little test with minimizing the output of the Warp-nullifying pylon network was all it took, and the Key immediately called to its origin! The white stone that Traveler Erika wears is the Key to the Divine Retribution! I wager now that we can now get inside the vessel!" Null clapped two of his metal hands like an excited schoolgirl.
"Why didn't you tell us you were doing this?" I angrily asked. So, that was why that Keeper of Secrets was able to snake inside my dreams, and why the Key was glowing, and why I saw a ghost! Null simply topped me off with more liquor. I looked down to the Key again, wrapping a hand around its cool surface.
The tech-priest's facial implants retracted from his mouth as sipped his drink. "I needed to know for certain. I am a true man of science. Words, dreams, and theories only go so far, but you were never in any danger. Well, maybe a little, but you're fine now, so whatever. Well, anyway, I have the ability to adjust the influence of the anti-Warp network of the blackstone pylons on this planet if I so choose. I usually keep it running at about 80% power to prevent any existential discomfort in the remaining population. When you arrived, I reduced it slightly further to allow for minor Warp influence. I did so early this morning. Nothing too harmful; daemons would still not be able to manifest. I needed to test my theory. And I was correct, praise the Omnissiah! The Key you wear is connected to the Divine Retribution, and even with only the slightest of Warp whispers allowed through, the Key will react to the ship's close proximity," Null explained, a satisfied tone in his buzzing voice. Jiminy fluttered up on Null's shoulder, and cheeped.
"Is this why I had nightmares?" Alberich quietly asked. I noticed that he had left his glaive back in his room.
"But, why didn't you warn us? What was all that I saw underground with the ghost?" I asked, still pinching my nose shut.
"If I had told you my plans, you may have used your psychic abilities in an attempt to deceive me into believing something that may not have been true. I would not be alive if I were not cautious. But now, I know with certainty, and I am satisfied with what I see. It aligns with everything I had expected, and what Virgil described. I'm convinced now that you are not some fraudulent witch sent by a Chaos cult or some secretive Inquisitorial operative sent to end me. I had to be sure. Seeing the artifact glow at your chest with the same energetic signature as the Divine Retribution was conclusive proof. Watching you venture down to the lower levels and meet an old friend of mine was simply a bonus. Tell me, what did you see?"
I began to flash back to the image of the familiar dark figure whispering in Virgil's ear, and shuddered again. I put back another shot. At least my heart rate was going down.
"I saw a something that looked like a golden ghost. He called himself Virgil, and he was so happy to see me, like I was expected. He did something that pulled me out of my body. He took me to where the eagle was, and together, we went inside. We weren't in there long. He said he needed to find the bridge of the ship, and we went to the eagle's head. There were three chairs on the bridge, one for each of the eagle's eyes, I think. The center chair was really complex, covered in wires and other things I couldn't really see."
I remembered hearing the voices that seemed to echo from the central seat, and shivered again. "Virgil... he disintegrated when he stood over that one center chair. He screamed and his body dissolved. That's all that I saw," I said, leaving out that I had seen a Chaos entity lurking down there. My nose had stopped bleeding, and I removed the now-bloody rag, which was snatched up by a mechadendrite. "Who was Virgil, Null?"
"Virgil, well..." Null sighed. "Virgil was the psyker that had been assigned to us. He was a talented young man, but had a habit of digging into things that he should have left alone, much like a certain Archmagos cursed with too much curiosity and far too little sense." The tech-priest looked up at us both, his eyes were now a deep blue. While I had never figured that tech-priests of Mars would be unemotional, Null was remarkably emotive with his body language and his animated eyes. I listened as he continued.
"En route to our assignment, Virgil confessed to me that he very much pushed for being assigned to us as our astropath, saying that his prescient psyker abilities had led him to Levant, and that a great discovery would be found there, something even greater than the blackstone towers. When he led us to the Retribution, his words were proven correct. I myself had been, well, doing some rather unique research into the nature of the multiverse resulting from some of my more dramatic assignments in the Halo Stars, many years previous. As Virgil and I spoke, we struck up a sort of scholarly friendship. Much of what he had seen in his visions I myself had seen in my studies, and he even admitted some heretical things to me, but I kept them secret. I implored him to keep his mouth shut. There was brief talk among my fellows of alerting the Inquisition, or even the Deathwatch, but having earnest Virgil and his wild intuition around was simply too valuable for us once the excavation began."
Alberich listened beside me, and opened a pocket in his jacket. He pulled out a paper-wrapped slice of dried meat, and began to eat as Null continued.
"I was actually the one that suggested fully projecting himself deep into the dig to see if we could find more information. We implanted a psychic catch device in his collar to pick up any images or sensations he would perceive. During his final projection, he died, but through his eyes, we were able to see inside the Divine Retribution, but we also witnessed something else."
Null appeared to pause and collect himself, lightly wringing his metal hands before beginning again. Alberich handed me a slice of dried meat which I took gratefully.
"What I did not tell you earlier was that through his memories, we had witnessed that he had seen a woman with a bright, but utterly alien soul. She had a bit of white in her braided hair, and it made her distinctive, recognizable. Around her neck, we saw a shape of holy power that shone like a bright star, but could not make out what it was exactly. Through Virgil's memories, we heard him refer to something called "The Key". He heard this "Key" calling to the eagle below. And the woman, well, my research and his visions had often told the stories of these strange bright ones, the alien Travelers that came from beyond our universe, wielding strange powers and knowing strange things. Their souls would sing a different song in the Warp that was unlike that of a normal human, and would appear very distinctive in witch sight. Virgil immediately proclaimed the woman to be the Traveler he had been dreaming of. He instantly knew it!"
Null held his head down, almost in shame. "He was right. Dear old Virgil was right! You were the one he saw. I understand now. Just before you arrived, a major disjunction occurred in the pylon network, and it shorted out. This was the second time the network had been damaged in one month, after perfect stability of over three hundred years! I could not believe my eyes when I witnessed through my telescope something that looked like Evanora but with a familiar bit of white hair. Through a special lens, I saw a similar aura of scalding white as she confronted the greater daemon in Alys. She was similar to the woman that Virgil had seen! After all these centuries, I needed to know. I used emergency power to jump the network's power, and I coaxed you here. Omnissiah forgive me for all I have done, but I needed to know that it wasn't all for nothing!" Null finished his drink, and Jiminy crawled down his shoulder to settle himself in one of the tech-priest's pockets in his red robe.
"It all makes sense as of this morning. Time has no relevance in the Warp, and once I had lessened the power of the network, the Key called to the Retribution, and you were able to flit away into the past, into Virgil's last adventure. You braided your hair before doing so. When I saw you fall after breaking into the locked lower levels, I immediately reengaged the network, and came to you. Foolish of me to think that any sort of technological boundary would stop you, since your kind can pierce the skin of reality itself." Null laughed grimly, and poured himself another drink.
"Your name isn't really Null, is it?" I asked.
There was a very tense pause as I saw the tech-priest grip his knees nervously, and bow his head.
"No," he said finally, and with sadness. "I was once Nemo, but because of my research, my actions, and what I have uncovered, the very root of who I am has changed, and now, I am Null."
"You are nothing," I heard the Tzaangor say beside me. "Null means nothing."
"Yes, yes it does," Null rattled off, slouching as he nursed his drink. "In fact, many languages, both archaic and contemporary. Shortly after Virgil died, I took the name after our exploratory fleet met with an very unfortunate accident while in the Warp on a supply run. A tragic loss. The person responsible for that, well, he should be forgotten."
"You..." Alberich straightened in his chair, wide eyed, his beak hanging open in an expression of shock at what the tech-priest had implied.
Null silenced any further questions. "We will not speak of such things, as the past is in the past and is no longer relevant. Now that I have confirmation on Erika's status as Traveler, we must get to work on leaving this cursed ground. I am very glad that Virgil met his end fulfilling his life's ambition, and gladder still that he died in the Retribution, and not in the Warp or as a gateway for daemons. I believe that the ship utilizes similar technology similar to the Golden Throne of Holy Terra to power itself, so his soul now fills a good purpose."
"The ship ate him?" I asked. Holy shit, I really had been in danger when I was with Virgil! I remembered all the hushed voices I had heard when looking at the throne.
Null didn't answer and stood up. "I promised you both a tour yesterday, and I will now fulfill that promise. The network resonates at a higher power now, and will not allow any sort of psyker phenomena, so we are more than safe to approach the Divine Retribution as she sleeps below. I have more bowls of nutrients to offer you both, specified to your metabolic nutritional needs and current activity level. Sir Alberich will require more than you, as he is still convalescing and should not be exerting himself."
About fifteen minutes later, two more bowls of gruel were brought to us by servitors in the mess hall. Null had rushed off on some unknown errand. I was a little tipsy from drinking the liquor earlier, so that at least was nice. Drugs and alcohol were really working out for me in this universe. Alberich ate in silence, his ears lowered and eyes thoughtful. Trying to change the mood, I observed how well he was dressed. It appeared that his clothes fit him perfectly, just like mine. His body wasn't quite human, but everything looked tailored to his form. He even had boots that fit his long calves. It was remarkable.
"You look nice," I said to him, finishing up my paste. "Feeling better from yesterday?"
The Tzaangor placed a hand on his upper torso. "I feel better, thank you. I only experience a residual soreness."
"Its really impressive that Null found clothes that fit you like that," I observed, and I watched him smile at the complement.
"I do have to commend the metal man on his tailoring and cobbling. My morale is much improved by wearing a good uniform," he said, straightening his collar. Hearing his pointed German accent along with his Imperial military garb was a little unsettling. "And I should say that you are looking quite well in your own uniform. It suits you."
"I wonder how he got everything made so perfectly?" I wondered.
From down the hall, I heard Null answer as he walked back to us, raising his voice so he could be heard. "This planet quite remote from the general Imperium, so we were sent a machine that could put together a uniform within a matter of hours if a set of specifications was inputted and the cloth was on hand. When Jiminy met you on the road, I was able to calculate both of your bodily measurements, so both of you could be well clothed and civilized when you arrived here. You were both rather filthy when you showed up, I must admit."
That was a little on the side of creepy, I thought. Alberich was finishing his second bowl when the erratic tech-priest appeared at the doorway once again. In one hand, he held two lanyards displaying metal cards with strange markings, and in the other, he held his staff. Jiminy sat on his shoulder, his little praying mantis legs clutching Null's red robe like a parrot. We stood up as he approached us, and we were each given a card to wear around our necks. "Here you go! Wear these so you don't get disintegrated or worse! Erika, I'm quite thankful that you didn't wander into any the areas with defensive turrets. My goodness, that would've been unfortunate. I request that you both leave any weapons behind as to not trip any threat sensors."
On our way, we both passed our rooms again in the hallway. I dropped off my dagger, and we were ready to go. It was actually a little strange walking around with Alberich without his glaive.
The three of us entered the same elevator I had taken before. After flashing some kind of holographic image from one of the palms of his many hands, Null pressed the button for the second floor. After descending smoothly, it stopped with a friendly "ding", and opened into what looked like some kind of engineering center with various lit computer terminals and mysterious machines droning. In the background, I could hear a very low hum coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. A grated metal floor and dark metal walls gave this location an unsafe feel, and will all the technology scattered everywhere, it reminded me of a mad scientist's laboratory. A servitor with two metal arms stood motionless against the far wall like a mannequin, his welded-on goggles black and featureless. Null walked confidently into the area, even humming a little tune to himself. As Alberich and I stepped off of the elevator, I saw four laser sights immediately train themselves on both of us, which vanished after an affirmative beeping noise was heard from somewhere. I didn't even see where those sights had come from! Null turned around after a few steps, seeing us both reluctant to follow after that. "Come on then, silly fleshlings! You would've been vaporized already if I had any worry that you were enemies!" he said as he beckoned us with his staff.
We followed the tech-priest as he turned to the left and walked quickly down the length of this cluttered area filled with various beeping machines and strange devices. After a minute, he came to a heavy metal door, barred and covered in what appeared to be complex locking mechanisms. "Alright, let's say hello to the old girl, shall we?" Null did something that caused all the locks to disengage at once, and the door swung open. A wave of cool damp air washed over me.
We were definitely underground again. The three of us were now walking through a broad curved tunnel of rock a few meters wide. Caged lights and lanterns guttered overhead as we approached, reaching down from the tall ceiling. No servitors walked this area, I noticed. The floor was smooth here, like a paved concrete. Humming merrily to himself, Null tapped his staff on the ground as he strode confidently ahead of us.
After about five minutes of brisk walking down this gently curving path, we came to a sudden bend, and ahead of us, Null stopped. He turned, and smiled at us with his eyes again.
"Every so often, I consider deleting the memory of this view from my mind so that I could experience the wonder of it all once again. How I envy you both! Come and see!" He waved us to hurry up and join him as he skittered ahead beyond my line of sight.
As Alberich and I rounded the corner, we were met with an incredible sight. While I had seen it in ghost form, and as a book illustration, nothing could prepare me for the full sight of the Divine Retribution in person. Flickering lights attached to rocky walls and metal floor lanterns burst to life ahead of us in the massive space, far wider than a football field and roughly dome-shaped, as far as I could see. I couldn't even make out how tall this space was. As the lanterns directly ahead of us ignited, they illuminated a mirrorlike section of a giant golden talon three times my height attached to the body of a colossal golden eagle standing over us, wings partially spread across the entire cavern. So far, I could only see the dim shape of a beak above the Divine Retribution's solid gold body. The lanterns were all still guttering on as we entered the space, but seeing this incredible construct stunned me into dumbness. It was absolutely amazing! The gold on the giant claw was highly reflective, and I could see my awed reflection in its flawless surface. Beside me, I heard Alberich whisper something that almost sounded like "Mein Gott", but I was too busy taking in the brilliant sight to pay attention to anything else.
"Divine Retribution!" Null sang out while still walking ahead, finally stopping between where the two giant eagle claws clutched the smooth ground. I could hear pride in the tech-priest's mechanical voice as it echoed in the vast underground chamber. He stood ahead with his back turned to us, leaning on his staff and gesturing upwards grandly with two left arms, observing as more and more of the golden ship revealed itself as all the lights flickered to life. "That's what she is. A worthy chariot for divine justice, crafted long ago in the Dark Age of Technology, or perhaps earlier. Fully entombed in earth until dear departed Virgil led us to this very spot. Omnissiah bless his memory for that! Cawl, Kelbor-Hal, eat your metal hearts out! I am the one who discovered and preserved this wonder of technology! This was my project! Me!" Null almost squealed in delight, and turned around to us again.
"And now, now, we have a Key for it!" Null dashed over to me, getting right in my personal space again. His scary whip mechadendrite appeared way too quickly and positioned itself over my chest, pointing only an inch away from the artifact.
"Woah hey!" I said, reflexively backing up. Alberich didn't even respond to Null dashing up as he was still taking in the sight of the ship, which was now well illuminated and reflecting golden light, giving the atmosphere a magical fairy tale feel.
Null laughed at my reaction, and retracted his metal whip. "You have no need to fear me, fleshling! I doubt I could remove the Key even if I tried! My research suggests that whatever the Key was, that it could not be separated from its owner. Even the death of its owner would not allow it to be taken. Now I understand why Evanora was never without it!"
"If Evanora had had the Key the whole time, how come she never tried to steal the Retribution and fly away? Did she know about this?" I asked Null as he backed off and turned upward again. Looking up, I could now see the three-eyed eagle's head that housed the bridge I had seen with Virgil, and the Retribution's vast wings half bent at the midpoint. The wings were very large, easily dwarfing a 747 in their span, and they were still bent! From here, I could also see that the wings also appeared to have stylized golden feathers, some of which tapered to razor thin contours at their leading edges. This was incredible!
The tech-priest offered a shrug in response. "Perhaps she was ignorant, and simply fancied it a magical trinket that she enjoyed? Barring any experiments, I kept the pylon network powered to suppress Warp energy when she was near, as I did not trust her heretical ways. So, even if she were to know of the Divine Retribution, she would not be able to fly it, as it seems to rely on Warp energy for at least some operations. Even so, I took note that when I adjusted the nullifying field to allow some magic from time to time, the Key never once glowed with her as it does for you, so perhaps it has Traveler-specific operations."
Alberich finally turned back to us, his head feathers were ruffled in excitement. "This eagle, you say it is a ship that can travel through space?"
"Certainly! And Warp-capable too! I'm not exactly certain how it shields itself, but I'm certain that once I'm inside, I can figure it out! There are many mysteries yet to be discovered, and soon, I will be able to study the interior of this construct and learn from it."
The Tzaangor walked near a giant golden talon, looking at his distorted reflection in the gold. He touched the surface with a hand, and turned around to face the tech-priest again. "How do we get inside? I see no entryway."
I wasn't surprised when Null's manic attention went right back on me. "We have a way in now," the tech-priest said happily, his eyes pink with cheer. "I do believe that I will need to lessen the Warp-suppression network by a certain percentage to enable an entryway to appear when the Key is brandished."
"Wait, hold on. I have a question. Does anyone actually know how to fly this thing?" I dared to question as I looked at the beak of the eagle hanging overhead. Everything was now brightly lit, and stunningly gold. Studying the ship again, I could now vaguely make out the corner of one of the three eyes on the eagle's head. Remembering my vision, the bridge had three important-looking chairs. Did it need three pilots, or maybe if it was like the Golden Throne, did they just need to stick a psyker in there and... Oh. Oh, no.
Tzeentch, sweetheart, I know you can't hear me right now but I'm sorry I complained about how I wasn't a primarch or something cool like that back when I was high on farmhouse drugs because seriously I can't sit on a fucking Golden Throne thing and fly a-
"You can fly it!" Null cheerfully replied, and Alberich's head swiveled to me. "It must be you since you have the Key and you are a psyker! I can only hope that you're strong enough to not get consumed by the ship!" The way the tech-priest said this was so surreally positive that I began to feel a sense of terrible dread. Virgil had died by even being close to that throne thing! I felt a panic attack coming on, and once again, the mercurial tech-priest was by my side.
I felt a mechadendrite pat my shoulder in a comforting motion. "Here!" He revealed that he had brought along the bottle of amasec from inside a deep pocket, and handed it to me. "Do not fear! Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration! I read that in a book once!"
I took the bottle and promptly drank about a third of the remaining liquid, not too worried about the taste anymore. Fuck my life.