"Tailsn, come ben now!" I heard the heavily accented voice of a scolding mother right before I felt the sun on my face, and the wind in my hair.

I felt as if I was waking from a long, pleasant dream. I was warm and comfortable, and as my senses came back to me, I realized I was sitting in a tall tree with bluish leaves and lazily drifting vines. I was looking down at a young girl of about six with long brown hair wearing a rough canvas dress. She was smiling up at me.

"How come urr ye bein' sae pernicketie?" the mother asked, exasperated.

"Juist a bawherr mair time, mama!" the little girl protested. Their accents were extremely thick, almost like Scottish, but as I listened to them speak, I felt something change, and I could understand them perfectly. "The Sun Lady is back!" she shouted.

"Her and her imaginary friends, I do so worry about her," the woman said with genuine concern. I turned toward the other voice, and saw a man and a woman standing in a doorway of a familiar farmhouse. The weather-beaten farmer's expression shone of a life that was both filled with toil and happiness. He was shaking his head with a smile next to a sturdy woman with flushed cheeks and hair bound in a scarf.

"Let her have her fun, Serene. This is the first time in two weeks we've had good weather," the farmer said with a smile to the frustrated woman standing next to him. "The Alysians won't come by for another week yet for their take. Let her have her fun when she can."

The broad smile only made the man's lined face kinder. "Kitten, you shouldn't be disobeying your mother," he said with warmth, shaking his head. I spied a boy a few years younger than the girl peer out from behind Serene's long apron. It looked like he was eating a fruit. He glanced up at me, and looked away before going back inside the house. I wasn't sure if he had seen me or not.

"I won't go far, promise. I want to talk to the Sun Lady!"

"Alright kitten, just a little bit longer. But you must come when called when supper is ready, you understand young lady?"

"Yes papa!"

With that, the farmer walked back inside, leaving the front door open. The smiling girl turned back up to me. What a pleasant day this was, I thought, swinging my legs in the tree. This felt like a little slice of heaven.

"Mama and papa think you are imaginary, but I can see you!"

"You can?" I asked from my perch.

"Yes! I'm smart! Mama and papa tell me I'm a side kick!"

"I think they meant 'psychic'," I said, smiling down at her. Without climbing down, I felt myself standing next to her. She reached for my hand, and when I went to hold it, I noticed that my body was insubstantial.

She motioned for me to kneel down to her height. "Psst, I've got a secret!" she said.

I leaned down, and she whispered in my ear, "I found buried treasure! Mama would be cross with me if she knew I was digging in dirt again. Come and see!" The little girl turned around, and began leading me through the grass.

We passed a familiar-seeming well on our right as I followed her behind the farmhouse. I looked at it, and distantly, a part of me wondered where I had seen it before.

Reality flickered, and we were standing over a small hole dug in the dirt next to a crop of what appeared to be cabbages. A ring of nine crudely sewn dolls stood around it, and deep within, a blue box sat, miraculously spotless. "It's magic!" the girl announced. "The Smiling Man told me it was here. The Smiling Man likes the number nine, and I'm learning my numbers from papa. Look, I made the right number of watchers, just like he said!"

"The Smiling Man?" I asked her.

"Mm hmm," she nodded, and reached into the hole, her hands picking up the box. "He smiles a lot, and we talk when I'm sad. The Smiling Man fights against the Wicked Witch, the Angry Man, and the Green Man. He lives in a blue maze with all his friends. He said this was for you!"

Tailsn offered me the blue container, and I took it from her. It was about the size of a shoe box. Inside, I saw a pair of silver scissors. Strange runes danced around and through the metal, swimming almost like fish. Where had I seen this before?

As I studied the peculiar scissors, reality flickered again. I found myself standing over something that resembled a huge black crab, absolutely covered in spines and armor. In the hand that I had been holding the scissors, I instead held a black length of hair. It was damp, and the scent of blood, electricity, and oil hung in the air. How odd, I thought, examining the hair. At one end, I discovered a piece of bloody flesh. It was still warm. I was cognizant that there were loud explosions and screaming all around me, but I remained unharmed and strangely calm.

"Kill it, KILL IT!" I heard the voices of angry men around me. Why were they so upset with me?

I held up my other hand as they began to shoot at me again. "No," I calmly said. All the projectiles stopped. I saw a giant in black bulky armor madly charge at me. He wore a necklace of skulls, and his head was hidden by a bloodied horned mask. Behind the mask, I knew that he was still the frightened boy that only knew his father's beatings thousands of years ago on Cthonia, and his suffering had curdled him into what he was now. He held a chainaxe that roared as galloped forward like a maddened bull. The pain and hate within him was repulsive. This man, if he could even be called a man anymore, was hate made flesh. He wanted to maim, tear, and kill. I didn't like it when people tried to kill me, I remembered. "Stop," I said. Both of his hearts turned to molten lead as he struck an invisible barrier. Before he could even hit the ground, I turned his bones into powder. He fell to the floor, dead at my feet. As his soul fled his body, I plucked it like an apple on a tree, and ate it. He screamed in terror as he was broken down and digested, his energy fleeing to the Key. It left a sour taste on my tongue. Around me, I felt numerous giant bodies belonging to similar former men that were also filled with hate and pain. I looked up at them, and I smiled. They recoiled in maddened awe, actually hesitant on what to do next. Before I could further appreciate this, things changed again.

"-and your surname is Romanov? How fate ties us together!" The stranger with the dark scraggly beard and long hair said to me in the empty parlor. He sounded absolutely delighted. My attention was brought to a dart that hung motionless in the air, its point aimed toward me a few paces away. I somehow knew it contained a deadly poison, but something had frozen it in mid-flight. "It was foolish of them to try that. Like poison would stop you. Let me fix that. I'm no stranger to people trying to kill me, and I believe you aren't either, but dying is always uncomfortable." The dart fell to the ground with a motion of his long fingers. "Foolish to think that they could stop the will of God with something as simple as poison, the weapon of cowards!" The ragged man smiled widely, and his penetrating blue eyes did not smile with him. "Allow me to introduce myself, fellow wanderer, I am-"

Before the stranger could tell me his name, the scene burned away, and I found myself in a place that didn't exist, with colors I had never seen before.

I saw four shadows standing around me, one of which was clapping his hands in joyous applause. Their features shifted and bent continuously, and I couldn't get a good look at who they were. The clapping man appeared very happy. "What a banquet! The glory of hope! The spice of ambition! The raw power of change! A feast of pure chaos!" the smiling man in the dark suit cheered.

And then, instantly, somewhere else. It was as if reality was skipping like a scratched record. "-and in the chaos of it all, I forgot my brothers," said the injured young space marine laying on the table. I was standing over him, alone in some kind of medical area. He was speaking to me, telling me parts of his story. "I forgot that even against the foulest of beasts, that I was to be fearless. There was no excuse. What I did was cowardly, and my life now shall forever be in penance of that." I stood over the man, stripped of his armor and dignity. I didn't know what to say, but I did feel sorry for him, I knew that much. "Whatever I am now, I am still a Dark Angel, and I should still have my Lion's pride, even if I should repent for the rest of my days."

I was with the little girl again at the farmhouse. She was crying in a dark bedroom, seated on a twin bed. "Sun Lady, please help me," she said to me. I was holding her hand. Her misery was palpable, and it caused my heart to hurt. Her name was Tailsn, and she was now seven years old. I knew she loved playing in the forest with her brother, and helping her mother on the farm. She believed in angels, I realized, and she knew beyond all certainty that I was one. No one believed her, since grownups just didn't understand, so now, she kept the angels a secret. She knew that the Sun Lady would take her away one day. She knew things that others didn't, and sometimes, it scared her. Her knowing was as strong as the earth beneath her, and stronger than the metal the tin man put in her family. I held Tailsn's small hand as she cried. "Don't worry, I won't tell them you're here. Mama will get mad. The Tin Man came again. He wants me to go and live with him in his tower. I don't want to go with him. Please don't let him take me!" I saw her brother asleep in another bed in the room, blissfully unaware.

I listened, and I could hear the sounds of an argument. "They'll be back, you know. The Alysians. They're taking everything! The fields are barren, and we cannot offer them anything else! And don't think they'll be satisfied with just Tailsn. They will come and take Bran too! We should take the Watcher's offer. This is the only way! The Watcher in the Tower has technology that can help them both, and make sure they survive. He has always looked after us. He cured Tailsn's fever last year."

"I have a bad feeling about this. I know he's good, but my gut just says-"

"What choice do we have? We send them both away to Adler, and-"

"Has anyone ever come back from Adler recently? Anyone at all? I feel like a storm is coming. Is the Watcher really who he says he is?"

"Its either that, or the Alys cult comes for them both, and no one ever comes back from Alys. We're one of the last families here. And we know that the cult is foul! You should know that of all people."

"I want to be safe," the little girl said to me, crying as silently as she could. "I want to stay with my family. They won't stop trying to take things. Sun Lady, can you help us? I think mama and papa got in trouble. The Smiling Man said you have wings that could fly away from here. Please take us all away! Please!"

A mess of scrambled images, all a mess of pain and loss.

"Sun Lady?" I heard Tailsn's voice in the darkness. "Are you there, Sun Lady?" She sounded very tired, and her voice was hoarse, like she had been screaming.

There was someone else in this room. It was so dark and oppressive here that I couldn't really make out what was going on.

"Oh, this is bad. Bad, bad. Beta subject 11 sees the Sun Lady entity," I heard a familiar metal voice tut to himself. I heard some buzzing and humming sounds, and the little girl moaned out a sound of choked pain in a voice too tired to scream anymore. "Power fluctuation, Adler Tower..." I managed to hear the voice say.

"Sun Lady, you're here. I knew you'd come for me. I knew it. Mama and papa and Bran will be happy," Tailsn cried. She was so weak and tired.

"Not enough residual fuel in the Retribution, can't take off. Very bad. Very, very bad." Distantly, I could hear the sound of an alarm sounding.

Power fluctuation, multiple units. Warning, grid instability.

"Sun Lady? Will you take me away like you promised? I think the Smiling Man lied to me. I think the Smiling Man and his family, they're bad."

I pushed and tried to see where Tailsn was in this darkness. The more I pushed, the louder the alarms became. I could now see a tiny shape curled inside an ovoid pod, wicked wires and painful things implanted deep inside her skin. I was floating over her, and she looked at me. I could see her smile weakly.

There was a dark shape in here, and I could tell he was frantically trying to fix something. There were two other figures that slumbered in their strange coffins, wires wrapped around necks, tubes inside of yawning throats.

Another skip of reality, and found myself floating over another completely different dark shape. This one also fussed over another tall black tower. Instinctively, I knew this was somewhere else, somewhere very far away. He was talking with something that was soulless, dead. They spoke of the planet being in trouble, or at least, that was the sentiment they expressed. I looked skyward, and saw long bands of unnatural colors scarring the smoky sky. It hurt to look at, so I turned away.

I found myself floating over Tailsn again. The girl was so tired. "Think, think, think," I heard the figure say as it paced about the dark room. He was very nervous. I saw as he stepped toward the two other coffins, one containing a boy, and the other, a middle aged woman. "Two Iotas do not equal a Beta, but I have little choice! Transferring power draw to the remaining Iotas will not last so long, but a low Beta is enough to jump the ship certainly, yes, yes."

"Sun Lady?" The little girl whispered, looking above at me, like she could see me. I wanted to hold her hand. I just wanted to tell her it would be okay.

"99-Z, initiate emergency transfer of network energy source. Transfer network reliance to Iota subjects 181 and 182. Duration, terminal. Omnissiah, I pray this works."

A rush of energy filled my being, and the alarms around me grew ever louder. I saw three other dark shapes standing in the room with me, their souls burned away and dead. They were carrying things.

"Come on, come on..."

Power fluctuation, Adler Tower. Dimensional instability detected, Omega level threat, location-

"-Alys, yes I know, I know."

The dark shape hustled to Tailsn, who still looked up to me with tears in her unblinking eyes. "Mama never believed you would save us. I always knew. I always did."

With shadowy hands, I saw the shape remove each attachment to her body, and cradle her like a broken doll. "I'm coming, mama. I-"

"Hush, hush," the dark shape said. "Designated units for scenario Alpha-Omega, report to the Divine Retribution. Follow my signal!"

Power level 35%, falling. Warning! Warning! Insufficient local energy input. Multiple unit failures. Structural collapse of Sengue Tower, floodwater. Estimating time to total power failure of blackstone pylon network.

I floated over Tailsn as she watched me in the arms of the dark figure. Her little hand reached out to me, but whoever held her did not notice me as I floated. A line of other figures also followed behind him, all converging on one place. I could feel the taste of desperation in the air.

I found myself above Tailsn as the figure carrying her climbed a flight of bright shining stairs, with others following him close behind. Floating above her, I held her tiny hand. She was so happy to see me. Right before he rushed through the open gate of this heavenly place, he shouted behind him, "99-Z, activate vortex grenades!"

Estimated time to total power failure, nineteen minutes.

I felt myself dragged painfully back into reality as some sort of terrible explosion happened above me. I was sitting on something that both sparkled and screamed in my mind's eye. I realized I was crying. "Tailsn," I weakly said. At my feet, I could hear something barking, like a dog.

"You're still alive!" A familiar voice with a strange accent said. "Erika, can you hear me?"

"He's going to plug her into the ship," I groaned, trying to force my eyes open. I had to save Tailsn!

"You're already plugged into the ship! Can you operate it?"

"Tailsn, he's going to..."

Once again, I found myself on the warm summer farm. Tailsn stood against the setting sun, so bright that I had to shield my eyes. She smiled. I blinked, and then I saw that her family was there. Instead of looking sad and worried like they did in the farmhouse drawing, they were all so happy. Even the son, who had always been sad, was happy.

Sun Lady, thank you, the mother said to me, her arm around Tailsn's shoulder, who beamed with happiness. I could feel her instead of hearing her. Tailsn knew you'd come, and now I know. She said you were an angel, and now we can all go together. You have freed us. Thank you.

The careworn father's face smiled. Our little angel was right, and now we're saved. Now we are here with you, Sun Lady. The father held his daughter's other shoulder from behind.

Sun Lady can only take you if you let her, the little boy said to his sister. It is your decision.

I couldn't say anything as I watched this family begin to fade into the bright light behind the sunset. Squinting, I could make out that Tailsn nodded her head. Take us, Sun Lady. Take us away from here with your wings. I was dimly aware that I was crying.

Thank you Sun Lady, was the last thing I felt before it became too bright for me to make anything out, and I once again found myself on a chair of what felt like electric needles. My body jolted awake, and my neck snapped back. Around me as I forced myself into awareness, I felt parts of the ship begin to come to life.

Ship? I was on a ship? I wondered distantly. When did I get on a boat? Why did everything hurt so much? I forced my eyes open.

Three tall ovoid ellipses stood in my field of view, and as I opened my eyes, I saw the shapes also begin to open. I struggled to focus. A wide flickering screen appeared before me, like I was in a movie theatre. It was too much, so I closed my eyes again. Everything was so loud. Something bad had happened above me, and I could feel rocks and dust falling on my wings.

I felt a presence descend on me, and behind my closed eyes, a series of cascading letters and numbers became visible to me before each unscrambled themselves. It reminded me of a computer booting up.

Operations: limited

Fuel Capacity: 15%

Emergency Fuel Capacity 10%

Prime Energy Cell: error, replace prime energy cell

Primary systems on backup, power rerouting from weapon systems

Void Shield Capacity: 10%

Parson Shield Capacity: 95%, Scanning captain intake

A wave of sharp, bright energy washed through me, causing me to wretch onto myself, and again, the letters unscrambled themselves into information.

New Captain detected. Authorization override admitted. Welcome, Captain. Sit nomen viator benedictum.

Please stand by for initial scan.

The uncomfortable sense of cold rushing water passed over me, and more information appeared.

Biometrics Scan Complete

Health: Fair, Mild Fatigue, Mild Iron Deficiency, Mild Dehydration, Intoxicants Detected

Current Psi-Level: Low, Blue Dwarf, Analog-Zeta

Motivating Impulse: Retribution

Recent Intake: 5

Range Estimate: 5.6 parsecs, sublight. 327.899 parsecs, Warp

Backup Parson shield: 32 hours

Urgent! Replace Prime Energy Cell. Limited operations in effect.

Recommend intake: 6

I blinked and took a painful breath. What was going on? Everything was alive and I felt terrible. I felt an urge to stretch, and I extended my influence outward. I had been asleep for a long time. My name was different too. Why was my name different?

My wings struck rock when I tried to fully extend them. Why was I underground? That was silly. I belong in the air, not underground. Who put me down here? Distantly I heard screaming. A small voice was begging me to close the ship. Close the ship? Why would the ship be open, anyway? That was also silly, so I closed the ship. The small voice continued to annoy me, though, so I stunned it with a shock. It stopped bothering me.

Above, I felt an area of unstable reality. There wasn't any rock left above me, but this was strange, like a wrinkle in the Materium. I willed myself to go over it, pulling the protective Parson shield around my skin like a warm blanket. I heard panicked screaming from a few small voices, and with ease, I was able to float quickly above it, surfacing as if I was buoyant in water. After surfacing, my talons found purchase on a precipice of rock and hard clay, standing over a deep hole facing a black tower. How irritating, just like the sound of that dog barking on the edge of my perception.

I was very hungry, I realized. It had been a long time since I had eaten anything, and parts of me didn't have enough energy to function. The part of me that contained the catalyst to ignite many of my systems was cold and dead. I was currently pulling energy from a bright soul in my belly, attended to by one of the metal men that used to maintain me. My will came from my captain, of course. It was a new one, a female this time. My shield pulled from her directly, more sophisticated barrier than a Gellar field, and as bright as the sun when I would travel through the Immaterium, as so all could see my glory from light years away. I was proud.

The sound of the barking dog was confusing me. It felt like a Warp entity, but friendly to the captain, so I did not eat it. Sleeping for over ten thousand years had left me quite groggy, I realized.

I still didn't understand why any of this was going on, so I put myself in the air to give myself some perspective and time to think. I liked flying, I thought, even through the Immaterium. The higher I got, I pulled my legs into myself, and straightened my body, aligning my neck and body properly for flight. With a good stretch, I finally extended my long wings, curling the sharp tips of my flight feathers in the air. I didn't need to do anything as crude as flapping my wings to rise, I thought, lifting vertically into the air above. That shit was for the birds.

But, birds needed to flap their wings to fly. Isn't this ship an eagle? Deep within me, another part of me started to reassert its identity.

A ghostly dog was barking at my feet. It was a translucent black terrier. Was that Wolfie?

The clouds of confusion were pushed away from my mind, and I found myself seated in a painful chair, my vision directed toward a large holographic display, bent up and around me like a giant 3d movie screen. Through it, I could see that I was far above the surface of the earth, floating like feather impossibly on the wind. An image flashed in my head that I was seated on the bridge of a giant golden ship in the shape of an eagle. The surface of the chair I sat upon felt both hot and cold at the same time, and it seemed to be attached to me. I finally came to full consciousness, and for a moment in disbelieving fright, I felt the ship fall.

The barking sound near my feet whined.

I willed the ship back into the air, and it responded. I took a deep breath. Okay, okay, I've got this. Deep breath. I blinked and tried to center myself as I tried to also keep concentration on keeping the Divine Retribution aloft. Ahead of me, on the metal ground, a shadowy dog sat watching me, and Jiminy the metal mantis lay non-functional on the floor. Oops.

"Hi Wolfie," I said dizzily. I was glad to see him again, but that meant that the pylons were either dead or almost dead. The astral hound barked. It appeared as if he was struggling to keep physical form, his body glitching in and out of existence like a spotty radio signal.

Alright, get your shit together. The hard part is over. I lived, and was not disintegrated. I felt really loopy, though, which I attributed to the drugs Null had given me. In the upper left quadrant of the large viewing screen, I saw a few lines of basic information, designating how high I was, how fast I was going, and how much fuel I had.

Reality: Materium, planet, atmosphere class A, 95% gravity

Altitude: 555m above sea level, 490m above surface

Airspeed: Stationary

Fuel remaining: 25% WARNING prime energy cell failure, recommended action, replace prime energy cell

Key reserve: 5 (11 units)

Warp dampening: 19%,

I had no idea what those last two lines meant, so I just sat on the throne for a moment savoring that I was still alive. I'd have to do something about that battery being dead later. Apparently, archaeotech golden throne eagle ships had batteries like cars. I felt a layer of wet sick soaking through my front, suggesting that I had vomited.

I contemplated my situation, gripping the arms of the throne. Sitting on this really felt terrible. It felt as if my back and every bit of my body that touched the throne was electrified in a way that pulled on my very being. In a strange way, I felt as if I was now a part of the ship, just a piece of its grand construction. Through the throne, I reached through a wing, and realized that I could feel the currents of air breezing over the surface of the Retribution's skin. It wasn't even flapping its wings, but since this was a universe where space magic was real, I wasn't about to argue with the physics of this. I looked down, and saw that the local area was devastated, with water drowning the entirety of the lowlands, easily over all the tops of the tallest trees in the forest. Only Adler Tower (which I hovered next to) and Alys Island remained above the deluge. From up here, I noticed I could see the faint shadow of another tower, and saw smoke rising from its base. I wondered if Null blown up more than just that dam.

"Can you hear me, Traveler Erika? I've discovered the ship's energy processing area. I am speaking to you through a terminal," a voice from deep within the ship called out to me. My awareness found what appeared to be an engine area, situated where the liver would be.

"I can," I said aloud. In the upper right hand corner of the screen, I received a moving image of Null dancing around happily next to four empty coffin-like glass pods, and a handful of servitors standing around motionlessly. They appeared to be holding Null's luggage, like he had packed for a vacation. One of the pods had an occupant. A small, childlike occupant.

"Oh no, no," I said, feeling dread. I fixed my awareness on the occupied pod.

It was Tailsn. A quick few touches with my senses confirmed it. This was the little girl who had called me the Sun Lady at the farmhouse. Another push, and I knew that her life force was currently feeding the ship, sustaining its badly drained systems.

Null had stopped dancing, and he looked up at a corner, making eye contact with me. There must be some kind of a camera or computer down there, I guessed. "She was a powerful psyker, Traveler! Her sacrifice means that we can go! But there is a problem, I am afraid."

I didn't respond to Null's grotesque enthusiasm over draining a little girl, and looked back at her glass coffin. I could spy that she wore a small smile. Her expression was that of untroubled peace. Not a bad way to go in this universe, really. It still made me sad.

When I didn't respond to his words, the tech-priest began to explain. "When the power didn't immediately ignite when we put you on the throne, I deduced that the ship's main internal battery had failed. A dead battery can be, as they say in technical circles, 'jumped' with a proper energy source. The only thing powerful enough for that was this psyker girl. Unfortunately, I had to switch the energy feed to the network to something far less substantial."

I was still upset over Null's treatment of Tailsn, but I would yell at him later, I reminded myself. "How much time left do we have? I'm still figuring this out. The ship also says it needs a new battery and that it is low on fuel." I willed the ship up and forward, circling around the pylon.

"Under nine minutes before complete pylon failure. The rift will begin to open afterward, but I am not sure on when that will be. I'm hoping I'm wrong," the defeat in Null's voice was palpable. Was this like sitting next to the center of the Eye of Terror when it blew up?

"Nine minutes! That's all?"

"Approximately, yes. The ship seems to have an innate ability to repel corruption, seeing as how you were able to simply float above and through two active vortex grenades lingering on, but with only scant fuel, fate must indeed be on our side to survive this. We must find a way off and quickly! Get to Warp as soon as you can and run from here!"

At the corner of my hearing, I could now detect a otherworldly singing coming from an unknown source. Nope, I'm not taking that bait, planet-that-is-getting-Warp-corrupted. I pulled the ship further into the sky simply by thinking, up, up. It ascended in a lazy spiral, like a vulture would on warm air currents. The strange music seemed to come in and out of my range of hearing, and was slowly getting louder as the pylons failed further. I definitely needed to find a way out of here.

"Higher, up! We have to get to Warp! Null said to break atmosphere!" I yelled at the ship.

"Fuel level too low for efficient fast exit. Conserving energy, slow ascent," the ship responded to me with that sedate androgynous voice. We were definitely running on fumes, even with draining the life out of Tailsn.

Because of that, I wondered if the ship even had the capability to jump to Warp at all. The terrible thought hit me again, holy shit, I was going to have to pilot through the Warp! Why didn't we talk about calculated Warp jumps back at the map room?

"Uh, Divine Retribution, are you Warp capable at this time?" I asked the ship. Hey, it couldn't hurt. Well, it could hurt this planet. And everyone left on it. I tried not to think about the apocalypse that was happening around me, and how many people it would kill.

It took a few moments to respond as I felt a diagnostic run. I felt a slight "pull" from the chair, and it responded. "Parson shield operational. Power level too low for Warp translation. Recommend replace prime energy cell. Emergency solution, recommend more intake."

"Define intake", I asked the ship.

"Raw Warp energy or standard life energy from living souls. Intake requested, 12 units. Activate emergency Key draw?"

Were there souls in the Key itself? Suddenly, I remembered when I was in Alys that I had stolen a handful of souls from Am'Erika! The souls had been drawn through the Key!

"Yes! Take the souls stored in the Key!" I said. I wasn't thrilled about this solution, but other choice did I have? The Golden Throne of Terra eats souls, and this throne also needs to be fed just the same. The Key glowed brightly on my chest for a moment, and then subsided. Shortly after, I felt and saw the last moments from all the souls I had captured, from the settlers in Alys, and strangely, to a... wait a minute... Black Legion Terminator? Holy shit, that's what I saw in the vision? So, I actually did that somewhere? I actually killed a fucking Chaos space marine? Wow, I should put that on my resume. No wonder he tasted like shit. The Key's energy bled into my body, which held the souls for a moment before the throne pulled them right out. I discovered that the unfortunate Chaos Terminator's name was Klaudandus, Eviscerator of Innocence. As much as I wanted to laugh about that ridiculous name, I had to worry about finding a way to get the hell out of here. I did notice that I now felt a little stronger, and I was able to straighten my back on the throne.

The ship responded to its tasty meal by saying that it was still hungry. "Intake required: one. Request permission to draw from crew interior. Draw soul from a source?"

Wolfie was still sitting at my feet, still translucent and flickering while cocking his head at me curiously. No, not feeding my dog to the ship. I looked at Alberich who was currently watching me with a mixture of amazement and horror while occasionally looking at the holographic display. Apparently, it had not registered to him what the ship was asking for, since he probably would've been upset if he discovered that I was considering sacrificing him for ship food. He was sitting on the arm of empty chair to my right with his arms wrapped around himself, holding his shoulders. No, can't do that either. This Tzaangor is a friend, not a food, and he saved my life. I intuitively knew that the servitors wouldn't be adequate as I considered 77-X standing motionlessly against a far wall. There had to be another way.

I noticed that the stats on the corner now said "Warp Dampening 5%" When did it get that low? While looking at that number, I watched it then go to "Warp Dampening 0%" and then disappear. At least with that, I saw Wolfie stop flickering and become the familiar black smoky shape I had seen before.

From deeper within the ship, I heard Null cry out "Adler, power failure. Total pylon network power failure! Get us out of here, Traveler Erika! There must be a way!"

As I sat wondering what else I could absorb for power, the singing voice outside began to become more decipherable. I could now tell that it was originating from Am'Erika's golden statue. Still trying to gain height, I willed the eyes to focus on the golden abomination to see if it was doing anything. I then realized that I had stopped ascending, and I wasn't exactly sure why that was. There had to be something we could do here! Tzeentch wouldn't just set all this up to watch me get killed by a daemonic Statue of Liberty, would he? Nervously, I studied the statue again, my skin crawling in revulsion.

Another line of information appeared on the upper far right corner of my vision. It said "Warp Interference 10%, Raising Parson Shield." I felt a wave of energy wash over the hull of the ship, as if I had been immersed in a warm bath. I wasn't exactly sure what a "Parson Shield" was, but if the ship automatically put it up when there was Warp trouble, I wasn't going to argue with it.

As I kept my eyes on the settlement of Alys, the ship helpfully magnified an image of the gold statue on the screen before me. I could now see that the singing wasn't just originating from the colossus, but it appeared that its lips were actually moving. The land under the statue was beginning to contort and bend into some sort of unnatural pinkish crystal at its feet, and behind it, I saw a shimmer in the air, like heat. The air behind it was rippling and bending. "Fly higher" I commanded the ship.

"Warp Interference 15%, Parson Shield Operational 100%, Detecting external pressure. Fuel reserves too low for in atmosphere emergency translation," the ship replied, and I felt a groan as it struggled against something above us. What was happening?

I now saw that the statue had raised its left arm, and was now holding it at head length, claws extended. Somehow, I could tell that Am'Erika was doing something to keep the ship from rising further, even from eighty kilometers away! It wanted to keep me here so it could play with me. It was smiling as it began to sing again, and this time, I could make out the words, and they were sung to a wickedly familiar tune.

O beautiful for endless cries,

For ember'd waves of pain

This can't be real. This cannot be happening.

For pleasure stoked in agony

Above the flooded plain!

The robes on its body began to move as if in wind, revealing those sharp goat hooves on golden legs. The robes then shifted into what appeared to be an American flag, wrapped revealingly around a body with six breasts, the top pair of which were very large and unnaturally shaped, almost like dollar store breast implants on a porn star. Two scythe-like crab-clawed arms revealed themselves, and these were now completely golden instead of black as I had seen them before. The flaming sword held above its crowned head began to shine with a wicked red light. The statue was moving! It was alive!

"Erika, please tell me this... this thing isn't what I'm seeing," Alberich said, watching the display. The words, "Warp Interference 21%" appeared, and it began to feel as if the sky was shifting into a pinkish marbled color. Far away, I could see another tower fall like a rotted tree. The Tzaangor looked back at me in horror. Still many kilometers away, the greater daemon began to laugh before singing again. I could hear it all the way from here!

Am'Erika! Am'Erika! Gods shed their grace on me!

And drown your good, in daemonhood from scream to wailing scream!

My heart jumped in my throat as I saw a hoof step off the pedestal, and onto an area of pinkish crystal that had miraculously formed on the water. Another step, and more crystal formed, perfectly carrying the abomination above the floodwaters. It was walking toward me, and I couldn't escape!