"Shit!" I swore, watching as reality spasmed around where the Ebon Hare used to be. "Where the hell did it go?"

"It has gone to Warp," Null said through the small screen ahead of me. "Will you chase it? We are too close to Kolch to make a safe translation. We got lucky on Levant; we must be further out."

Fuck that, I'm not going to be hunted by the damn Inquisition! My thoughts briefly went back to the Aeldari ships that lurked in the outer reaches of the system, but they weren't really doing anything but rubber necking right now. The little black spy bunny ship was definitely the priority. No, these little punks were not going to stop me!

I felt a rush of energy blaze through my body. It was similar to what I had felt on Levant when I had burned that daemonette to death. Around me, I felt the other souls on the bridge react with instinctual fear.

"Divine Retribution, translate to Warp immediately! Continue chasing the Ebon Hare! We have to stop that ship!" I shouted into the space, my voice resonating powerfully again through the entirety of the bridge.

"But we're not at the Mandevil-" Null started to protest until all the lights in the bridge went down, along with the shutters over the eyes of the ship. A darker, violet light now illuminated us. The ship hummed, and then reached through to me, distributing me all over itself like a skin. Beside me, I felt Alberich seize on his throne as the ship also drank from him, further reinforcing itself.

I felt reality disintegrate as the Great Ocean embraced me once again. As we translated, I felt something break in the direction of Kolch, but it didn't matter since I had jumped to the safety of the Warp.

When I opened my inner eyes, I was soaring over a verdant grassland of multicolored plants, each piece of vegetation a different impossible color winding up from an individual mind to praise the sky above, and all moved with the invisible wind of thought.

What is this place? I heard the secondary mind that was now present ask me, fear coloring his thoughts. I calmed him, and welcomed him along in my hunt. He would watch and know in case my primary mind was incapacitated.

Far ahead of me, I noticed my prey as it ran, disturbing the waving plants like a running animal would in a more conventional reality. My sharp eyes found it easily. It was a small black rabbit of fanged metal, and it wanted to get away from me. It was very fast. A maneuverable, worthy challenge for a delightful new hunt as my systems further warmed. It had been so long since I had hunted, and I was eager. The rabbit turned, and within, I saw a man-shape with three eyes wearing a red bandana. He was the mind of the hare, and I could feel his desperation. A powerful soul, and indeed a worthy challenge.

I flew through the false sky, feeling once again the luxurious feeling of emotion breeze over my feathers as I flew, dipping and diving as I began my pursuit. My secondary mind felt fear, but it was rapidly giving way to wonder. I would show him my dance. I would show him my majesty. I would show him my purpose.

My prey paused beside a boulder made of a planetary governor's empty promises, ears down, likely hoping that I would neglect to see it, but as I dove low, my bright shadow caused it to leap in fear. It caught a favorable wind in another direction, and I followed. I bent one of my wings in a rapid turn, and artfully extended a talon to snatch my prize. The little dark rabbit proved maneuverable, and instantly changed direction again, causing me to only catch a handful of grass-souls. I rapidly banked again, claws out, and found only a struggling mouse of an unrelated alien's dreams in my grasp, which I threw away. Curses!

Into the false-sky again I flew, and I maneuvered myself for another dive. My head pierced a soldier's nightmares as I felt temporal wind rush against my cheeks. I was enjoying myself, and did not want to immediately catch my prey since I did not want this flight to end early. A little entertainment with my dinner, I thought happily. I swooped close enough to sniff at their tantalizing souls. One of them had died in sheer fright from this action, and fear gripped the rest of them as surely as my talons would soon. Hares were ever so fragile. The three-eyed mind with the red bandana was persistent, however, and he commanded the prey to flee further, setting its engines further alight. He had encountered many hunters, and survived them all, but none so persistent as me!

The hare changed direction once again when the grassland bent at a 90 degree angle downward, forcing me to rapidly dive again to keep up. Once reoriented, I circled around backward and skyward again to find another angle of attack, and I felt something unexpected. The mind within the running rabbit had rallied a great deal of willpower, so much so that it caused the imitation of a landscape around me to shift.

Instead of the lush veldt, I was now flying through a three dimensional maze of metal, rust, and chains as they churned in eternal torment around me. My broad wings found the flight difficult in these closer quarters, but the hare easily bounded between gears and metal teeth, adeptly navigating the unreal industrial landscape. Its engines blazed with overpowered fury. It was both fast and smart!

This wouldn't do, I thought as I watched it gain ground ahead of me. I wanted to fly through something less harsh. I didn't have to wait long, as the metal dissolved into blue rust, which quickly became an airy water filled with diaphanous sea creatures. The metal hare still existed as itself, and adapted by bounding off the backs of the innumerable swimming leviathans to travel. These actions proved to me that this black rabbit was a veteran of outpacing predators by its cunning movement, and I respected it.

"Go away," the hare projected the thought to me as I closed the distance behind, expertly dodging stinging jellyfish tentacles entire lifetimes in length. Diving closer again, I reached forward with a snap of my beak, and it responded by screaming back at me in both fear and defiance. "You will not catch me!" it said to me with a short kick against my cheek, causing me to flinch and fall back. Such defiance and strength! Its engines blazed furiously again. A piece of it broke off from its form, and I swiftly dodged what appeared to be a mine. The small explosion had still managed to strike a part of my left wing. It had slowed me down once again.

Very far away, I heard other people demanding that I tell them "what was going on" and that they were "frightened". Why would they want to interrupt me while I was enjoying such a fine, challenging hunt? Aside from some minor damage to my void shields from the mine, and a section of my Parson shield flickering, I felt completely wonderful! My attention went back to my quarry.

I responded to the mine by igniting one of my plasma torpedoes, and sending it along ahead of it to upset its path. The rabbit once again leapt at the last moment, swim-flying through an area of limpid wind, and landing on the back of a multicolored manta ray after a grand leap.

Unexpectedly, the manta ray below the hare grew spines and teeth, and began to immediately thrash and roar, upset at the hare using it as a stepping stone. The hare dug its claws into the ray, and leapt off into the sky. The manta ray monster's roars turned to screams, and now both I and the screaming manta ray were chasing the hare as it dashed away.

"You will not catch us!" the three-eyed mind said to me, its engines bright and hot. Another soul died within the hare, its body broken from attempting to adjust something in its engines. The smell of cooked meat made me even hungrier.

The landscape around us changed again, and this time, our pursuit found us through a vast forest of growing crystals and bluish-pinkish-yellowish light. The strange angry ray followed me here, still endlessly screaming as it swam along. It was considerably smaller than I was, and did not move to bite at me, and kept a safe distance away from my halo. Its endless screaming was irritating, but as long as it wasn't trying to directly hurt me, I tolerated it.

The crystals here, like the grasses on the veldt, were multicolored, shifting and changing on ethereal winds. The hare raced ahead, but I found myself admiring the alien beauty of this new hellscape. Towers of quartz and silver writhed in a dance, and tall points of amethyst shifted into fractal patterns that captivated me. I hardly noticed that beside me, another screaming ray had appeared, but made no move to hurt me. I felt like a shark being shadowed by lesser predators for food.

"Stop that! You're going to get us killed! We have to drop back out!" I heard a loud soul scream on the hare. There was an argument between the souls it contained. Another was desperately praying, calling to the god "Tzeentch" over and over again for deliverance.

The growing crystals around us melted like the idealized dreams of a dying philosopher, and the running black rabbit found itself on a flat plain of moonstone as a storm of sapphire gems pelted us like hail. Sparse diamond trees made from the wishes of the dispossessed defied the perfectly level surface, and reached with indignation toward the dancing un-sky of many colors. The hare slid around awkwardly, unable to get a grip on the slick moonstone, allowing me to gain ground on my prize.

There was something wrong with the prey now, I could definitely see. Its skin was flickering. The hunt was nearly over. I sped up, talons out, closing the distance between us.

Across my starboard, I felt the secondary mind cringe in fear of something, and I put my eyes on what had caused him that emotion. The hare began trying to frantically change direction. Before us both to our right, a huge bent humanoid figure had appeared in the sky, pulling itself out of a storm cloud of blue electric ingenuity. It was many times my size. Luminous wings that shone like a neon rainbow sprouted from its bent back, and a vulture-like head with a hooked beak molded itself into existence. It levitated cross-legged and was sitting at a spinning wheel, threading strands of silver into a bright cloth.

A part of me recognized this giant, and that part of me knew instantly how dangerous it was. It was a Lord of Change.

The Ebon Hare ahead of me slid precariously on the moonstone plane, and I could feel terror in its heart. Those inside were afraid because their shield wasn't stable. Something had broken earlier, and the skin that kept the hare's souls inside had begun to shimmer with instability. The three-eyed mind knew now that he was in terrible danger. I heard a primal cry of terror rise from my prey as shrill as a rabbit captured by a wolf. This noise caught the attention of the impossibly huge Lord of Change, who looked up from its project, and turned toward us as we raced. The manta rays beside me scattered. That was definitely an indication that I should run away!

The Lord of Change smiled, and the landscape around us went mad.

The defiant diamond trees that had dotted the landscape began to shatter all around us into fine dust, and the colorful sky cracked like a broken mirror, turning as black as hopelessness. The plane of moonstone below began to split with fissures, breaking apart like a dried lake bed in a drought. The pelting sapphires became rubies, which then melted into what felt like coagulated blood when they struck my hull, burning away with a hiss. The coppery smell of murder filled my nostrils.

I followed the Ebon Hare even as it fled desperately away from the greater daemon. Was I in danger? Should I go back to the more proper reality? I didn't want to. I wanted to keep hunting. Within my prey, I could feel that the three-eyed mind was frantically trying to fall back into the Materium, but failing. I had almost won!

With a single clap of its wings, the greater daemon flew to us, a curious smile twisted on its beak, and its shadow bigger than a hurricane. It held a long staff topped with hooked crystals, and in its other hand, it held what looked like two shimmering knitting needles. It effortlessly closed the distance between both myself and the hare, almost as if it had paused our pursuit so that it could easily fly to us, no matter what effort we made to flee.

Shouts of worry from souls within me began to blossom, but I paid them no mind. I needed to catch that rabbit! I couldn't stop now! I was so close!

Instead of behind us, the Lord of Change was now immediately in front of us, and it began to speak. I heavily banked to dodge it, my wings actually needing to flap against the emotional current to move myself, but the Ebon Hare did not have wings, and was not so lucky.

WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE? A PARABLE? A METAPHOR? A RIDDLE? BEFORE OR AFTER? WHEN OR WHERE? THE KINGMAKER EAGLE HUNTS A HARE? OR DO THE THREE LITTLE DOVES HUNT THE KINGMAKER EAGLE? EXCELLENT QUALITY STORY! GRAND ALLEGORY IN EXCELLENCE OF STORY!

The voice of the Lord of Change was so loud that it caused the entire ship around me to vibrate, briefly disconnecting my mind from the throne, and causing the Parson shield to flicker.

"Fuck!" I yelled. There were people shouting all around me! Stunned, I took a deep breath on the throne, and realized that I was covered in sweat. "Not now! Reattach me! Reattach me right now! Bring the shield back up now, now, now!" I frantically shouted. The Divine Retribution obliged, gripping me once again.

The Ebon Hare's engines were strained and overheated from this long, difficult pursuit, and with that, I noticed that its power was failing, and with it, its Gellar Field. In a blink, the greater daemon held the frantic ship in its claws, investigating it like a new fun toy. Its expression was almost innocently playful. Within the vessel, I could sense the terror of many beings. They were screaming. Two died of gunshot wounds within, killing themselves.

WHAT A DELIGHTFUL GIFT YOU HAVE DELIVERED TO US! THE FORCES OF CHANGE SALUTE YOU, FAVORED TRAVELER OF THE PLANES, LAUDED KINGMAKER EAGLE!

The Lord of Change wore a cheerful smile as it took the Ebon Hare in its gargantuan claws, and quickly twisted the screaming craft in two directions as if breaking the neck of a squealing rabbit. Just before I saw their ship rupture, a spasm of light occurred, and I saw a small portion of the ship jump out of Warp. An escape pod had desperately jumped back to the Materium, but I knew it was not capable of interstellar travel, and likely to die in deep space. Whatever that life was was insufficient for me to be concerned about.

Wait a minute. Insufficient for me to be... concerned...?

Where was my conscience going?

Briefly confused, I found myself stalled out facing the greater daemon. I watched as the handful of recently deceased wailing mortal souls now orbited the Lord's beaked head. It then proceeded to pluck each orbiting soul, one by one, and stretch it into a sentient, still-aware silver thread of eternal misery. A loom and a spinning wheel appeared again beside it out of nowhere. Taking each thread, it began to deftly spin some sort of tapestry artfully depicting the screaming faces of the last moments of each of the crew that had died in the Ebon Hare.

The scene was actually morbidly fascinating now that I somehow knew that the greater daemon had no intention of hurting me. I found that I could not look away.

IN THANKS FOR THIS LOVELY GIFT OF STORIES, WE DELIVER YOU NOW SAFE PASSAGE TO A PLACE OF RESPITE, AND WE CONFUSE YOUR TRAIL FOR THE ONES THAT HUNT YOU, KINGMAKER EAGLE!

"So, what do you think?" I felt someone nudge my shoulder, and found that I was now outside the Divine Retribution and floating next to the greater daemon. Despite being in the Warp and existing right beside a Lord of Change, I held no fear, and simply levitated as I watched the grotesque scene of the daemon's busy project. Instead of being instantly dead from being out here on my own, I sensed that the atmosphere around me was warm, fluid, and actually rather pleasant. I found that I still couldn't look away as I saw the face of an agonized woman locked in the tapestry that was being woven.

"You enjoying the run of my game yet, little mouse? I do so enjoy a good chase!"

I didn't respond as I watched the Lord of Change braid and manipulate the souls ahead of me. The scene was... strangely fascinating?

"They all died?" I asked, wondering about the people in the Ebon Hare. My voice sounded alien in my chest, and I didn't speak in a mortal tongue, but I understood myself and what was said to me. Reaching upward in surprise, I clasped my throat, and saw that my hand was now stark white, clawed, and had too many fingers. That didn't bother me either, and I quickly forgot about it. I felt fine. In fact, better than fine.

The Chaos God chuckled. "Well, 'death' is a fuzzy concept here in my living room." Tzeentch floated ahead of me, his arms crossed. This encounter with the Architect of Fate felt far more dangerous than the last time I had seen him. This time, even while wearing his ever-present smile, the god also felt very serious. He was wearing his typical slim "human" shape, and his perfectly tailored dark suit. There was a powerful feeling of raw malevolence around him, shaded with a sense of amusement. "The humans you saw, they have shuffled off their mortal coil, but they'll be aware forever. Unlike most mortals, these humans will retain their cognizance as threads within the tapestries that are woven by Ari'Raith'Thoras-Whilath, the Sublime Weaver of Mortal Threads. He will spin their strands for eternity, and they will never be forgotten as components of his art. In that way, he does them a favor. They will never end, so in a way, they will never be gone nor will they be forgotten. Unlike many of my childer, the Sublime Weaver of Mortal Threads absolutely adores his mortal souls, treating them like precious silks. I give all my childer freedom to do as they please, really, even the ones that I adopt off their mortal bodies. So again, I ask you, what do you think?"

HOLD THREAD PLEASE? the Lord of Change asked me as I stood next to Tzeentch. The Lord became human-sized, as he offered me a single strand. I reached out with my white alien hand, and took the thread between my thumb and forefinger. The greater daemon nodded thankfully, and took the opportunity to move and reposition the length of the strand as I held it, fussing over where to place it on his loom. Within it, I could feel the panicked last moments of a young man, trying desperately to drop his ship back into realspace, and worrying that he would never be able to see his mother and father again. His last mortal thoughts were of his newborn nephew, thousands of light years away, and that he had never told his brother that he was sorry for the terrible things he had said. Watching his thoughts, I felt a strange sensation within my stomach. It was as if I was... enjoying a great meal just by being here. I had been hungry for so long, tired for so long, desperate for so long, and to feel the pleasure of satiation was unusual and welcome. Even the fluid warmth around me felt like home, and I didn't want to leave this nice hot bath of emotions. I was transfixed, and I didn't know why I felt this way. My hungry gawking was strangely noticed by the soul of the pilot as he looked back at me. He began to scream for help, begging for the Emperor to save him before the Lord of Change took the thread away. The pilot was woven away as the greater daemon hummed merrily.

"Well?" Tzeentch asked me, bringing my attention back. Oh, he had asked me a question.

I couldn't answer, and shook my head. I felt far away from myself. Something about this situation felt terribly wrong, as if I was experiencing reality through a thick caul. My wings shuddered nervously, and I folded them tightly against my back. Tzeentch had turned around; he was still floating ahead of me. "Overwhelmed? I understand. You don't have to answer now," His eyes, instead of gold, were alight with multicolored fire, and his ever present knowing smile communicated his sadistic intelligence. My sight abruptly flickered, and I briefly beheld a vision of a leviathan of infinite improbable dimensions that weaved fates like a spider in the center of an impossible labyrinth. Perceiving it for only the briefest of instants scorched my inner being with horror, and I got the sense that if it wanted to kill me, it could easily snuff me from existence as easy as a mote of dust. I watched its many arms, tentacles, and wings reaching and spinning and manipulating all reality, across all time, and across all dimensions. As I recoiled, the monster became the man that floated before me again, smiling knowingly, understanding what I had just witnessed. "Just something to think about. You too can live forever, weaving stories and saving those who would see their tales wiped clean by the teeth of death. That can be your eternity, should you make the right choices. Or, you can be manipulated into the stories of others within this universe by those stronger than you. The weaver or the weaved. The hunter or the hunted. Predator or prey. Keep this in mind as you go along."

I heard a distant familiar voice. "...Yes, tell it to jump out of Warp, mutant. We need to see what happened."

Tzeentch's grinning face began to melt away like burning ice, and I felt the sensation of falling. Instead of floating, I was now on a cold throne that hurt me, and was draining me of my soul. A part of me was still outside, in the other place. Reality snapped into position as best as it could to my perception.

"How... do I do that?" a German voice dryly rasped beside me.

"Just make the order! Don't be thick about it! Wait, look! She has woken!"

I blinked repeatedly, and pulled myself up on a chair that gripped me. I saw a gold room, and there were faces that watched me in worry. "Just..." I started to speak, shaking my head blearily. Words were hard right now. "Just, jump out of Warp. Just do it. Don't... don't think about it too much. Watch, I'll-"

I felt myself become the ship again. This was getting easier and easier. I was now perched on a tree bough in a calm forest, and a blue snake watched me with gold eyes as it coiled around the branch I stood perched on. I willed the entirety of myself to step backwards into realspace with a brief shudder. Ah, there we go. All better...

The shutters on the three apertures on the bridge went up, and normal stars appeared through them. The bridge was once again bright and normal.

"Scion, are you well?" the small screen ahead of me displayed Null's concerned eyes. Oh, I knew that guy. The Tin Man. "What did you see out there? You stopped chasing the Ebon Hare, and would not listen to us. I think we almost had a failure of our void shields! Are you alright? You're different!"

"The Ebon Hare had a Gellar field failure and a greater daemon ate them. They're gone, lost in the Warp," I said, forcing myself back to reality. Once again, after my fun adventure in Hell dimension navigation, I was exhausted and covered in sweat, but at least I felt a little better than last time. I didn't feel that I was going to pass out and puke all over myself. But, I did see that that Alberich had done just that, and his head was hanging limply to the side. He was now unconscious, completely exhausted from the jaunt. Alberich had definitely not enjoyed his vacation.

Null began to scold me from the small screen as I struggled to control my reality hangover. He spoke to me like a concerned parent worried about his teenage daughter being out too late. "You must know this, but you will definitely need to learn to better temper your attention to be responsive to both us and the machine spirit here. We could not reach you for this entire hour. Aside from watching ourselves advance on the star map, we had no idea what you were doing! Alberich was able to inform us in the beginning, but then, even he was swept up! The games and stories from your universe must tell you that Navigators will keep in contact with their crews on more conventional starships, and we need you here to answer concerns!"

Oh, get off my back, dad, I thought. Give me a fucking minute here.

"Excuse me?" Lian's voice interrupted through the bridge from behind where I sat. After listening to our Tin Man yell at me, and seeing the Scared Crow unconscious after witnessing horrors beyond comprehension, here was our Cowardly Lion, probably on his way to having another breakdown. We're definitely off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Molech, whoever that was. And the Yellow Brick Road was Hell, of course. I didn't remember this part of the movie, I choked with a mad giggle. Lian nervously cleared his throat, and then asked, "Do we know our status? I cannot tell by this map where we are. Where are we?" I looked up, and saw that we were somewhere above a new planet, but aside from that, there was no frame of reference.

I straightened my back against the golden throne, and asked the ship, "Okay, where are we, Divine Retribution?" I heard Null muttering in frustration to himself, saying that I should pay more attention. At my request, words and notations appeared on the large central holographic screen. This time, the information appeared on the screen ahead of me instead of in my mind's eye.

Location: Materium

Fuel capacity: 85%

Parson shield capacity: 20%

Void shield capacity: 15%

Beacon: off

The ship then spoke to us: "Warning: Psychic exhaustion detected on captain and secondary navigator. Warning: hull damage. Warning: Parson Shield critically low. Warp translation not recommended. Suggested action: Rest or regeneration of both primary and secondary sources of fuel."

I tried to ignore the ship's dire warnings that we had actually come very close to disaster, so I just fixed my attention on figuring out where we were exactly. I didn't want Null yelling at me right now. "Materium's a big place. Where in the galaxy?" I asked. "Retrace our steps, please."

A local star map of the Kolch system once again appeared, but this time, a blotch of red had smeared across a part of the planet. A notation that indicated "Imperfect Warp translation, gravity well fault" hung below the red smear. The map then slightly adjusted itself, displaying an overlay of the Warp weather we have traveled through. The map followed a twisting route careening through space in a rough, westerly direction as we chased the Ebon Hare. Our route genuinely looked like the flight path of a chaotic housefly zipping madly through space, with plenty of near 90 degree turns and upside-down backwards loops. Through the Warp, we had apparently flown within a hundred thousand kilometers of a white dwarf star before slinging back out again. Our eagle-shaped icon chased another tiny icon shaped like a rabbit, and a trio of other bird-like ships tailed us at a fair distance. Oh, I had completely forgotten about the spying Aeldari in my quest for rabbit stew. They had followed behind us!

After a wild flight that spanned thousands of light years, we flew through an area of Warp behind a band of space dust. As we reemerged, the icon of the rabbit remained, and now had a red "X" through it. The icon no longer moved, designating it as destroyed. A notation of "Ebon Hare: Destroyed in Warp, Gellar Field failure" appeared adjacent to the icon. From there, our eagle icon flickered before dramatically reappearing on another part of the map as if it had glitched there, very far to the west from our original location. We were a staggering total of 4856 light years west of Kolch, 999 of which were from whatever Warp magic the Lord of Change had subjected us to. The Aeldari crafts that had shadowed us were no longer visible, or at least they weren't detected by the ship. Currently, it seemed that we were in the neighborhood of an orange star named "Cyrtal Prime". We were parked above a planet named "Nubua", which was the third planet from its star, and was orbited by three small moons.

"Is what is displayed truth? Did we really pathfind this route? How can that be possible?" Lian said in amazement, walking up from behind the throne to study the screen. He pointed. "This indicates here that we have passed into a branch of space known as the 'Deadly Desert'. The stellar weather here is very difficult to traverse. If my fellow Angels and I found ourselves traveling through the Ultima Segmentum to Kolch, this area is usually avoided. The planet Nubua sits within the center, but we have never visited it." Lian turned around and glanced at me before bringing his attention back to the map again.

I yawned and straightened back up on my throne. I had gone from holding this guy back from killing us to having him give us friendly insight. Terrifying him into submission had worked.

"Deadly Desert?" Null responded. "I recognize that name. It is a colloquial designation for the 'Broken Desert of Nubua', and our fleet detoured around it when on our way to Levant. From what I know, Deadly Desert is a series of remnants of a group of lost civilizations scoured from existence from an unknown time. It is a broad wasteland many light years long. The name comes from the debris, dust clouds, asteroids and space hulks that make it difficult to move through, and the Warp is similarly perturbed here from ancient wars. It is not easy to navigate, so it is mostly avoided."

"And now, we're over Nubua itself," I observed, watching our icon slowly turn. The planet we flew near was a globe of sandy browns and beiges, and fluffy white clouds swirled in its atmosphere. I was momentarily distracted by seeing Alberich vomit and briefly shudder again on his throne. "Divine Retribution, detach secondary pilot," I instructed the ship. The Tzaangor didn't move, and appeared to be unconscious. This same thing had happened to me last time, so it did not surprise me.

"Does anyone know if this planet is dangerous?"

"I don't know. We never stopped there," Null responded. "We were told that it was forbidden space to us, too hazardous to cross without the light of the Astronomicon."

"Divine Retribution, what are the conditions on planet Nubua? Would it be safe to land?"

I felt the ship's eye sweep over the planet below us, and the ship responded. As it spoke, the words it said appeared on the holographic screen ahead.

"Nubua: Class A planet. Classification: Ruined World. 0.85 gravity. 1.36 standard rotational time. 0.72 standard atmospheric pressure. Terra-like atmosphere. Atmosphere high in silicates, particulate matter. Air filtration necessary. Areas of lingering radiation detected, various locations. Areas of severe dust storms. Calculating safe locations for landing..."

The ship demonstrated a three dimensional model of Nubua, and areas of safety were designated by broad areas of green holograms. I noticed here that the safe areas were almost always next to places with the "ruins" label. If that Lord of Change had sent us to another Tomb World, I swear...

"Divine Retribution, any sentient life, organic or not on this planet? Any dangerous monsters down there?" I asked, thinking back to Star Trek and how Captain Jean Luc Picard would order a "scan" on the life forms of an unfamiliar planet. Would that work? If it did, I was probably about to feel silly about not doing this when we landed on Kolch, but to be fair, I was super exhausted and freaked out at the time. Parts of space travel reminded me a lot of Star Trek, which was fun if you ignored all the genocide and death in this universe. A nasty realization surfaced: Jean Luc probably wouldn't have mercilessly run down a mercenary ship until it blew up, damning its occupants to Hell forever.

The ship interrupted me from my introspection, "Estimate: No remaining megafauna overtly detected. No intelligent life detected."

So, the planet was dead, and sitting in the center of a band of once-inhabited civilizations that were also dead. And this region's name was the "Deadly Desert". Sounds perfectly safe. I decided to get input from my crew concerning what to do. I hadn't made the best choices recently.

"What do you think, guys? Should we land?"

Null spoke up. "Normally, I would prefer to stay in orbit for safety, but from here, I'm getting seeing that part of the ship's living gold sustained external damage when we left before the Divine Retribution could fully rejuvenate. If the world is simply a wasteland, we can find a safe place to land, and I and my helpers can investigate what happened to the vessel. It appears that the ship can now adequately store energy, so it can also rest, reform itself, and soak up some solar energy as I work."

In my impatience, I had also fucked up the ship. Great job, me.

"I will agree with whatever your wisdom guides you to," Lian said solemnly. Alberich did not answer since he was still unconscious.

"Okay," I nodded. "Divine Retribution, make way for one of the areas designated safe on Nubua. Don't park near radiation or Chaos or anything," I said, feeling the ship acknowledge me. The vessel changed direction, and the planet before us began to grow larger in the three windows. "Detach me from the throne, too." An electrical sensation arced through where I felt my body contact the throne, and I was disconnected. Much better.

"Approximate time to land, 33 minutes," the ship intoned. "Conditions at landing site: 25 degrees, haze, wind at 20kmph."

"What did you see out there? You saw something, didn't you?" Null asked as Lian turned around again, walking to me. Once again, the Fallen had great difficulty meeting my eyes. His body language suggested constrained fear, but he still reached out with a large armored hand in an offer to help me to rise, similar to a knight helping a noblewoman rise.

"I'll tell you later, Null. Please just give me some privacy for a little bit. Take Jiminy away too." For the sake of my sanity, I wanted some quiet time away from either seeing or talking about Warp-related things. Spiritually, I felt very tired.

After a slight hesitation, Null nodded, and said "Very well. Contact me through speaking through the ship if you need me." The smaller engine room screen before me vanished. Jiminy also launched into the air and buzzed away, flying down the corridor toward the main body of the ship. Taking Lian's hand, I stood up, and pulled the Fallen in the direction of the Tzaangor. "I can walk, but I don't think he can. Get him up, make sure he's okay, and put him in a bed. Find yourself a bed too. There's a few places to sleep. Just don't take a room someone else has claimed. We'll talk about eating later."

The Fallen nodded compliantly, and picked up Alberich, slinging the beastman's unconscious body easily over his shoulder. He also left the room, and I was now alone with Wolfie, who was snoozing on the floor.

A welcome quiet fell upon the golden bridge, and I sighed wearily while standing next to Alberich's throne. I now had a copilot, which was good at least. My attention briefly fixed on the leftmost throne, and I wondered who could eventually be on that. Lian (to my knowledge) wasn't a psyker, so probably not him.

I took a deep breath, calming my thinking. Everything had just happened so fast. My life was now so different, and I was at least happy that I was adapting. I had this wild archaeotech spaceship, and I was traveling through Hell successfully. Not bad, I conceded to myself. Not bad at all.

Very intentionally avoiding Alberich's daemon glaive, I walked to the the Tesseract Labyrinth that lay on the floor. I scooped it up, and put it in my pocket again. This thing could be useful later. The ring that served as its key had rolled toward the central window ahead of my throne. Passing through the holographic monitor screen, I walked to the window, and picked up the metal object, tucking it away in my other pocket. As I straightened up, my breath caught as I saw the view outside the ship.

The planet Nubua was a beautiful tapestry of earthy bands of color against a curtain of starry black space. It was growing larger as the Divine Retribution made its way toward a suitable landing site. I remember reading somewhere that astronauts had their world views permanently changed for the better by being in space, seeing the grand perspective of the beauty of the universe and humanity's place in it, but now, the experience had been spoiled by what I had just experienced in the Warp.

All at once, the weight of what I had done fell on my shoulders like a pile of bricks. I realized that I had been responsible for the deaths and eternal torment of the mercenaries aboard the Ebon Hare, and that instead of even attempting diplomacy, I had immediately turned to violence. Not only that, I had derived pleasure from it. I had held the tortured soul of a lost pilot between my fingers, and found it to be delicious. I had watched a Lord of Change mutilate the souls I had killed, and I just stood there hanging out with Tzeentch while watching in interest. What was wrong with me? Thinking back to what I experienced made me shiver in loathing at myself and my behavior. It felt like I had stained my soul with this action. I felt like a murderer, but worse, considering that I had utterly damned those people on top of killing them.

I briefly looked at my dirty reflection in the glass, and flinched away. I even looked like a monster with all the dried gore covering me. Dirty on the outside, dirty on the inside. The luminous gold in this ship did nothing to clean my conscience. Am I really this kind of person? Am I lost now?

I looked back at my haggard reflection on the glass, and the Wicked Witch of the Ghoul Stars stared back. I would just have to do better, I thought. I would just have to...

...wait

I reached up to my hair, investigating something that was different than before. When did this happen? I began to examine a part of my hair over my right eye.

Another section of my hair had turned white! .