"What are you doing in here?" I asked instantly as I tried to move, only to feel a needling pain ripple though my nervous system. The throne pulled me back down, and I was unable to rise. I was then struck motionless, immobile.

The man in the dark suit broke an even wider smile upon seeing that and walked across my field of vision. "Now where I have seen something like this before? Hmmm," he laughed as he saw me struggle on the throne. Ahead of him, in the display, I saw Am'Erika's upper body and head, madly rushing, but instead of running, her motion was now very, very slow, even when everything else around me had stopped. "Mmm, she's fast, isn't she? I daresay out of all the different flavors my family come in, my delicious little brother makes the fastest childer, especially when the planet is halfway in the Immaterium so the rules can be bent a little. I admire the ambition, really!"

I didn't say anything, but I did notice that his form seemed somewhat translucent here, drifting in and out of solidity.

The god turned to look at Alberich, who was frozen, cowering against chair to my right. "So, now you know about him. Another lost bastard who traveled. There are more, too. Travelers tend to jump in groups. I like him, and you should probably not kill him, nor should you permit that egomaniacal tech-priest to kill him. He could prove very useful to you in the future, once you replace the battery on the ship. But, for now, I'll also give him a little bit of an edge, since I'm helping you so much." Tzeentch pulled his fingers across the Tzaangor's shoulder.

The smiling god then put his terrifying attention back on me, slowly walking over to where I sat motionless.

"Speaking of giving someone an 'edge', here's the part where you ask me for help. Or, you just want help. You want your situation to change, your fate to be altered. Asking and wanting are brothers. It always comes down to this sort of thing with a lot of the fun little Materium critters I enjoy from time to time, you included. No one has an existence in this Materium without my hands getting a grip on the skeins of their fate."

He turned around and walked through the projected display, which dimmed as he did so, revealing the three pinched ellipse windows. The god the approached the center aperture. The number on the corner of the dimmed screen said "4km" indicating the distance I was to her, and from here, I could see that statue was taller than I had estimated, even taller than the Statue of Liberty at home. The icon next to Am'Erika said that she was 515 meters tall as I watched her move very slowly in this time-altered moment.

"She's so fast in this Warp-bent space that no one could match her speed, really. That sword she bears looks like it is now positioned to skewer this ship like a pig on a spit in approximately .57 seconds. You couldn't possibly react in time to counter that," Tzeentch said, casually looking outside.

"So, I have a concern, my dear. You seem to be taking me for granted by relying on me. Independence, ingenuity, and strength: I value those traits. I saw that little comment one of the readers on your story wrote, about how you can't rely on my goodwill forever. That is somewhat true, but really, I just plan what happens, and watch it all fall into place. All of it is a plan, ultimately, even you wanting help. But I don't like it when people strictly rely on me to fix their problems. I prefer you have to work for it, not lean on it. Use your brain and solve problems. Consider this a gentle suggestion, my dear."

I didn't really understand what he was talking about. What story, and what readers?

Tzeentch turned back around, crinkling his nose in a self satisfied smile at my confusion. Am'Erika was growing larger in the window as the Divine Retribution approached, and I saw now that the flaming red sword she held in her right hand was now being positioned, and that her eyes glittered with wicked satisfaction. If the ship didn't move, it was set to slice clean through the left wing of the Divine Retribution at this angle.

"But, yes, aside from all that I must admit that I do like you, and that this is rather neat, this crazy thing you've decided to do here," the god turned around, gesturing in a dismissive manner behind him toward the window. "Suicidal heroics are a rare treat for me, as they can cause some of the most savory types of hope, the hope of the impossible, the hope for a miracle. This action alone caused the birth of nine neverborn in my realm, so I do appreciate it. Calculating risk to reward is also a thing for me, since I am also the god of intelligence. Helping you from time to time leads for more power for me in the long run. You did have a bit of a rough start, so I'm willing to let a little bit of your plucky audacity slide."

"What... do... you... want..." I was able to choke out between clenched teeth.

The god then got right in my face. He was always smiling. "I want you to cut a bloody hole of change across this stagnating war-weary galaxy, that's what I want. Find your way home in the process, whatever, I don't care, just cause as much chaos as you can while doing it. But, be smart about it! You can't do that if some Keeper of Secrets kills you because you made a stupid mistake, so, you get another big freebie from me. Just don't rely on me to bail you out all the time. Keep the stupid mistakes and assumptions to a minimum. You're not one of my princes. At least, not yet! Admittedly, I do think you'd look good with feathers while singing my praises and enacting my will for eternity, but we can have that conversation later."

The god reached forward, and clasped my right hand, which lay slightly above an armrest, frozen. With ice cold fingers, he gently turned my flattened hand to the right. "An adjustment of 9.9 degrees should do it. You were pretty close anyway, even compensating for some of Am'Erika's speed. But, as I said before, Slaanesh and his childer are unmatched in that department."

Am'Erika was now close, under a single kilometer away, her sword extended. As it lunged, I saw that the daemon seemed to actually look into the ship as it edged closer, filling the window with a cruel golden face. When the left wing of the Divine Retribution began to rise, I saw the greater daemon's expression begin to shift as the sword missed striking the wing by a mere hand length. The ship was turning more quickly than the Keeper of Secrets had moved!

The god smiled viciously as he turned away, walking through the translucent screen and gazing out the central window, his hands clasped behind his back. "May this remind my perfect little brother that I am the god of fate, and that this is what is written, and so it must be. No matter how fast you are, you cannot outrun fate," Tzeentch said those words to the window as the ship turned nearly vertically, fully dodging the sword which I sensed begin to slowly pass us on our left. From where we were positioned, we would now strike the left shoulder and arm of the greater daemon with the right wing like a blow from an axe! Am'Erika's eyes seemed to fix on Tzeentch as he remained standing with his back to me. The daemon's expression was changing into one of surprised realization.

"Fate is inescapable, while speed is simply speed, and can always be outrun by inevitability. Such a primitive thing, little brother. What good is the perfected physique of an athlete if he breaks his leg before a race? I know you can hear me, and I know you're impressed."

The Keeper's eyes widened; she appeared to have heard him. The Divine Retribution was now at an angle at about 90 degrees, and to my amazement, it was now nearly perpendicularly aligned with the daemon's left shoulder in a way that could possibly slice the daemon's upper left crab claw clean off.

The god turned his back to me again. "You know, I did tell you that you would have an opportunity to get your Retribution awhile back. Funny how this all just works out, right?" After flashing a smile, he turned back around to the window. Am'Erika's face was now only a handful of meters ahead and above us. From what I could see of its face, it appeared absolutely outraged. Her left arms began to rise in defense, but they wouldn't be there in time. "Remember this well, little brother. No one can outrun fate," Tzeentch said again before snapping his fingers, causing time to restart.

In the next moment, I felt a sensation of great pain and pleasure rush over my left arm, causing me to scream with the greater daemon as the Retribution severed Am'Erika's upper left arm. I felt the ship reel, and then, a flood of energy reached through my wings and body, causing the lights to shine brightly for a few moments. An psychic echo of outrage filtered through my senses, and just ahead of me, I felt reality rupture.

"Jump to Warp, NOW!" I managed to yell out.

The projected display ahead of me had disappeared, and the three apertures had closed. A dim purple light illuminated this place menacingly. I dimly registered that Alberich was screaming, and had fallen on the floor. He grabbed the shoulder where Tzeentch had touched him, breathing heavily.

I blinked myself back to reality. We were alive, I think, but all three displays had gone black, and the projected screen was off.

"Divine Retribution, what happened?" A dim featureless blue screen came up ahead of me, with text once again appearing on the corner.

Translation to Warp Successful

Location: Warp

Fuel capacity: 10%

Parson shield capacity: 100%

Beacon: off

The ship began to announce, "Warning! Warning! Disjunction imminent! Recommend emergency flight path to safety!"

A large 3d map came up on my field of view. It almost looked like a satellite weather map, designating currents, winds, and areas of disruption. The icon of the Divine Retribution was sitting on top of an area of flashing red. The amount of "wind" coming from this local area was incredible, whirling and circulating madly, like we were sitting right on top of a hurricane.

I realized I was looking at an estimate of the local Warp weather. It was an absolute mess.

I willed the map to pull out. I saw a depression in the area that read "Quilan" that flickered and moved with the changing winds. Further backing out, I observed to my south... or was it west? There was a very deep and very inconsistently positioned planet with the name "Nemesis". Its outline jumped around in the wind like a spider, appearing and reappearing in different places within a small area. I didn't remember a planet named "Nemesis" on Null's map. Pulling even further back out, I finally saw a planet name "Kolch", which felt as if it was very far away.

Divine Retribution, set course for Kolch, I tried to get the ship to just do it for me, but of course it didn't. It did offer me a general direction, though. And plotted a golden flight path. I was honestly getting sick of all the gold everywhere, but I had more important things to worry about right now.

"Activate navigation mode?" I felt the throne snake through my nervous system. It felt as if it was gripping me.

Oh no, I was going to have to do this, wasn't I? The ship needed a navigator. Damned if I do, damned if I don't, I thought.

"Alright, let's do this!" I said to the ship, beginning to shiver. I concentrated on the direction of the far planet named "Kolch" and felt an intuition to close my eyes. As soon as I did so, I flew right out of my body, and into the Warp itself.