"Wow," I said, taking deep breaths to calm myself down. Half-aware, I reached up and flicked the switch on my mask. Need to breathe.
"I don't understand. You made this? How? What is "New Jersey"?" Null asked me as he held his light over the painting I had made.
"You don't really want to know," I responded with a dry laugh. A dizzy sensation caused me to briefly sway with vertigo. Null's eyes flashed with concern, and he reached forward with one of his hands to inspect my mask.
"You turned it off," the tech-priest informed me as he switched the mask back on again. A few deep breaths and I was now feeling better. I noticed that I felt a very slight wind on my skin now, despite being inside. "Here, you better sit down for a moment. Let yourself acclimate." I sat under my eagle painting, taking deep breaths of oxygen as Null crouched down and visually inspected me. My goggles now displayed "490mb, 9.2% ox" which definitely showed why I felt so woozy. Null briefly waved his wrist scanner across my face, and said, "You're fine. Just wait a little bit until you acclimate to the lower pressure."
Alberich was now kneeling down next to me and asking the tech-priest what was wrong, and I dimly heard him explain that I was suffering from a sort of altitude sickness, and that it would pass. The Tzaangor nodded and sat down next to me as Lian walked up to Null and asked him something. The two of them walked away, further into the room. Wolfie, ever attentive, laid down beside us on the floor.
"Hi," I said to Alberich. "I've never climbed a mountain before. This feels like it sucks."
"When I was a man, I once climbed Mont Blanc. I remember a feeling of similar sickness. It passes, and you will definitely feel better shortly with that oxygen."
"You sure you don't need it?"
"I had my doubts when Null said I did not require oxygen, but it seems that he spoke truth. I only feel a slight affectation of my balance. The storms outside must be violent to affect air pressure so dramatically."
"Yeah, wow," I said, taking deep breaths. I watched as Null and Lian had a short hushed conversation away from me. I couldn't quite hear what Lian was saying, but he sounded upset, and he also occasionally pointed at one of the paintings on the wall that I couldn't make out.
He recognizes a painting, I heard Alberich say to me in mind. My ears are keen. He claims that a painting displayed here came from one of their sacred places, where his people gather. He wonders if it has been stolen.
You see this painting above me? I said back. I actually made it. I'm the original artist. It came from my Earth. Right before I was poisoned, I had hung it in my art exhibition. I made this. I don't know why it is here.
Alberich turned toward me, his eyes wide and beak open in surprise. He blinked a few times and shifted his weight as he held Valkyrie at his side on the floor. "Something is strange about this world. You have had visions of it, and out of all the places we could have been transported to, the vulture daemon trans-"
Quiet! Don't talk about daemon stuff in voice! Null will not tolerate any mention of daemons or Chaos! I scolded the Tzaangor, who immediately shut up with a snap of his beak. If Null found out that I had hung out in a friendly way with Tzeentch and one of his sadistic greater daemons in the Warp, I had a feeling things might get rough for me. Luckily, the tech-priest seemed to be engaged in a heated discussion with Lian, who was very upset.
Alberich nodded. I forget. My deepest apologies, my leader. I... I still have not recovered from my experience attached to the vessel you pilot. I saw so many things.
There was a short moment of tension. I could feel that the Tzaangor was afraid. He finally asked me, "What happened to me on the ship? I do not know how to process what I saw." Alberich's beak was chattering in anxiety.
"It's complicated, really," I said with a weary sigh as I watched Null and Lian speak heatedly. "The Divine Retribution isn't just a spaceship, as you probably know by now. It is a sort of psychic artifact, to put it as simply as I can. From what I understand, it integrates living souls as both fuel and as crew. As its pilot, I am essentially being used as its brain, and since you're my copilot, you're being used as a secondary intelligence. It has a sort of oversoul, or a spirit in the machine that binds it all together, I think. That's my best guess, anyway."
"What wonders and terrors this universe holds," Alberich responded. "And what of the, um..." the Tzaangor cleared his voice, and then spoke to me in mind. What about the creatures we saw in the landscape outside in what you called the "Warp"? The vulture demon that destroyed the ship we were chasing. Did that happen?
I kept forgetting that Alberich was entirely alien to this setting. "The Warp is a parallel dimension to the one we're in right now. Since time and space are just suggestions within it, the people in this universe can use it as a form of faster than light travel. It is why we have been moving thousands of light years at a time each time we 'jump' to it to travel. The bad news, as you probably saw, is that it is a sort of Hell dimension where daemons and Chaos Gods live." I braced myself before explaining the rest of his question. To be safe, I spoke to his mind instead. The vulture daemon we saw is a Lord of Change. It is a greater daemon of Tzeentch, and they're very powerful, and even more dangerous. We're lucky that Tzeentch actually seems to like us right now, since we almost met with disaster when our shield had problems. We could've been like those people on the Ebon Hare.
If the shield fails, we enter Hell?
I nodded. Yup, that's right. We go straight to Hell. Forever.
"You damned those people," Alberich said to me in a hush, his ears low and his eyes searching. "When we ran them down to exhaustion, and their ship ruptured, you became responsible for their damnation."
Defending myself against that accusation was impossible, because it was true. I nodded again. "Yes. Yes I did. I made a decision in the heat of the moment. This universe is very dangerous. Lian said that the Ebon Hare was a mercenary ship, and that one of their clients was the Imperial Inquisition, which would both definitely hunt all of us down, take our ship, and torture us to death. The Imperium of Man is a ruthless authoritarian regime, and is not exactly open-minded toward people like us, so I want to keep our existence as quiet as possible as we make our way through the galaxy."
"Then you did the right thing by destroying them, my leader," Alberich said, tapping his fingers on the haft of the glaive. "A difficult but prudent choice. Better them than you."
I shook my head. I still felt sick that I had done that. "Fuck," I said, still shaking my head. "I'm tired of this crazy universe. I don't know if you came from my universe's past, but how are you coping with all this, Alberich?"
"Truthfully? Not well, but I consider this as my afterlife. The teachings of my organization suggested an infinitely broad universe, one where Aryan supermen could travel in different bodies through differing trials over all of time. I could be somewhere worse, but if this is where I am, I am at peace with it. I have seen many things, and I just try to accept that somewhere, there is a divine architect of my fate."
I turned to study the feathery beastman. His new small horns gave him a more malevolent silhouette. I really did not like that he seemed to be a full devotee of Tzeentch, even after that god pulled a sneaky on him by causing him to slip and fall on the other throne, causing his soul to be linked unwillingly to the Divine Retribution. This was not a sustainable path for him to take.
So, when did you get your Mark? I asked the Tzaangor as I remembered that he had a Mark of Tzeentch. Further into the room, I could hear that Null and Lian were still speaking, with Lian still audibly upset.
Alberich reached up and clutched his left arm reflexively. I've always had it since coming into this universe. When I died, I had a vision where I spoke with the Great Architect, and he marked me as his own before putting me in this body.
You know what that is, right?
A divine mark? Alberich's psychic words suddenly had an edge of doubt.
It is, but in this universe, it marks you as a representative of a Chaos God. Tzeentch only marks his favored representatives, but with him, you have to be extremely careful, as he is violently chaotic and changeable in his whims. One day, you might piss him off just by deciding to have pie instead of cake for dessert, and he would turn you into a mindless mass of flesh.
He is the Great Architect, and I submit to his will. Alberich replied curtly with a tap of his daemon possessed glaive on the museum floor.
I was about to protest this when both Null and Lian walked over to us. Both seemed tense. Wolfie stood up, his body tense as he watched the scene.
"It appears that Lian has also recognized one of the paintings here," Null said as the Fallen stood over us. "Look here, astartes. The Scion herself claims to have created this gold painting. Can you stand now?" the tech-priest asked me as he pointed at the piece of art hung above on the wall. Null reached down with one of his mechadendrites, and helped me up. Alberich also stood up, and the two of us walked to the other side of him.
"You have not been here before? Tell me, why did you fly us here?" Lian asked me, his deep voice echoing in the empty dim space.
"I have no idea why the Warp spat us out right on this planet, but since the previous pilot had been here before, maybe it had a flight path stored somewhere. And where I'm from is a long story, but I've never been here before."
"Where are you from?" the Fallen gently asked. Oh great. This will be fun to explain again.
Before I could answer, Null turned to him and gently offered, "The short explanation is that this woman comes from another universe. A separate reality to ours which is beyond the boundaries of both the Materium and the Warp. The archaeotech you found yourself on can only be piloted by one of her kind. Travelers like her are impossibly rare, and I have been studying their existence for over a thousand years. The Imperium knows of her kind, but suppresses any discussion of them. In some rare texts, they are called 'Marii-Suze', if you've ever come across that term."
"Yeah, that's about right, I guess," I said, shaking the sand off my trousers. "I found myself here about a week ago after someone poisoned me in my home reality. I woke up on Levant, rescued Alberich here on the road, and then, found Null at the base of one of the Necron pylons that world had. We killed a giant statue possessed by a Keeper of Secrets right after getting the Divine Retribution by ramming it. But what's really crazy really is that this-" I indicated toward the painting I stood before. "-this painting was something I made about a month ago, when I was still in my home reality. I wasn't even in this dimension then. I was having a gallery show where I was showing my art, and this piece was in it. I don't understand how it can be here. I know things are crazy, but this is even crazier. Next level shit."
Lian appeared very confused, which made sense, since the whole thing was confusing. This had been a very eventful week, I thought back. "Look, whatever, we'll talk about it back on the ship. What's the painting you recognize?" I asked the Fallen.
The space marine pointed an armored hand at another painting on the opposite side of this wall that stood in a shadow, and motioned for me to follow him. As we began walking to it, the Fallen began to explain. "A secretive chapter of my order keeps sacred artifacts in a sealed room. One of those, I remember with perfect clarity, is this painting. The room has not been entered in two thousand years, and we are only permitted to look upon the artifacts though a force field. I do not understand why it is here." With only a little vertigo, I trailed after him with Null, Alberich, and Wolfie.
"The aforementioned sealed chamber of artifacts is under guard at all hours deep within our monastery. Breaking into it and stealing it would almost be an impossibility," Lian said as we stood in front of the painting he recognized. It was dark, so Null raised his light mechadendrite to offer some illumination.
Another impossible familiar thing assailed my eyes. "My god," I whispered. I recognized this one too! This was a wide painting, about two meters long and half that wide. On the left of the canvas, I recognized Horus standing evilly over a shattered Sanguinius as the Emperor stood enraged on a set of stairs to the right. This was a very iconic 40k illustration, done by an illustrator in my time, and certainly not in this era. "Oh! I know this one too!" I exclaimed.
"You do?" Lian asked softly, his brow knitted in confusion. "How is this possible? Where have you seen it? A vision?"
"In my old reality," I said, taking in all the detail and brush strokes. It was neat to see this iconic painting in person. I turned back to Lian. "Like what Null said, I'm from another universe. I came from a place where all of this-" I motioned around me. "All of this is actually a series of fiction books and games. People from my universe create lore and make entertainment from the stories that result from it. This painting was an illustration done for the game, and the game itself is named 'Warhammer 40k'. It's how I know all that I do. I used to play these games and read these stories. I even used to write fan fictions of them." This was really difficult and awkward to explain, but I was doing my best.
Lian did not look like enjoyed hearing this; he probably didn't believe it. "You claim to come from a realm where people make up stories and games from our trials? All our suffering, all our pain and misery... is a game to you?"
Clearing his throat, Null spoke up again, redirecting Lian's uncomfortable emotions before he could get angry. "The multiverse is a vast place. It has infinite possibilities and permutations, and in one, her people craft our existence. Her native reality and ours are linked in an inexplicable way. She did not know that we existed, but knows now. We have had others of her kind and from her reality that have come before her, and they have had a monumental effect on the universe around them. With what you see before you, I cannot truly explain why you both recognize this painting, but reality can work in mysterious ways. When was the last time you saw this painting, astartes?"
"One year ago."
"Mmm," Null made a musing sound. "The temporal lock on this part of the pyramid fell within the last hundred years, perhaps earlier. I do not think it fell within the last year. If I had to guess, if you were to return yourself to whatever renegade monastery you come from, you would see that this painting has not been stolen. Perhaps some kind of Warp power copied this image. It is certainly evocative." Null pointed one of his mechadendrites at Sanguinius' broken body.
Lian continued to search me, this time looking me in the eye. Something was causing him great conflict. Would I have to slap this Fallen to the floor again? Wolfie stood next to me watching the Fallen, bristling and uncomfortable. The dog still wasn't over Lian trying to attack him, I guessed.
Alberich ended up being the peacemaker, and decided to discuss the painting directly to Lian's left to diffuse the situation. This painting was a richly rendered interior painting of a golden ballroom where elegantly dressed dancers and attendees mingled and posed among elegant furnishings that resembled an old Victorian manor. "This painting here, it reminds me of my home. When I was a man, I often visited a country called Austria. This very much captures the spirit of wealthy party goers."
The Fallen's expression rapidly shifted between anger, conflict, and almost awe as he studied me from his height. I decided to try to pay attention to Alberich instead, and observe the ballroom painting. As I started to walk around the marine, a thought jumped from him to me, causing me to briefly startle.
It's you, isn't it? You're the new one, the new Revelator as brought to us by Tuchulcha, Oroborus, and Plagueheart. You're the one that was found, and summoned to us. You're the Chosen One. You're the Inheritor of Mankind, he said to me, his psychic words strained. I could tell that he wasn't a psyker, and was trying his best to "think" loudly enough so that I could hear him.
I paused as I stopped beside him, and held my breath. I turned upward to the marine, whose eyes actually began to wet again as he struggled to maintain eye contact with me. An insight struck; deep down, this giant Fallen Angel was both reverent and absolutely terrified of me. The moment stretched out, extending deep within the well of my being. Alberich's observations on the ballroom painting drifted unheard into the background. Deep down, despite not knowing what Tuchulcha, Oroborus, and Plagueheart were, I knew what Lian was asking me, and I could feel his conflicted disbelieving excitement again.
Another flash of psychic intuition told me that the Fallen had not only been on a hunting trip on Kolch, but that small groups of marines had been all the way out in the Ghoul Stars searching for someone, or rather, something. A ritual had been held somewhere secretive by a splinter group of their hidden order. This ritual was enacted to import hope into this failing galaxy by summoning a shard of the divine from a reality beyond their reach. One to help change the miserable trajectory of mankind for the better, and one that wasn't stuck rotting on a throne. And they had found me.
Oh, no way. No. I recoiled.
Lian was right, wasn't he? It was true, wasn't it? But, it couldn't be! I wasn't nearly as powerful as Sebastian! Null had rated me at only a Zeta psyker assignment, so this couldn't be true! But, Sebastian also had the Key, and the Key ate souls. With each soul that I had "eaten" and passed on to the Divine Retribution, I had felt stronger. Was I gradually getting stronger by absorbing life energy? Fuck, was that actually how Sebastian got so powerful? My self-doubt was being bowled over by my keen clairsentience and sense of knowing. I somehow absolutely knew that not only were the souls in the Key feeding the Divine Retribution, but since I was a working part of the ship, they were also feeding me!
It really was true, wasn't it? It was why everyone was scared of me. It was why everyone was deferential to me. It was why I was the captain of the Divine Retribution, and it was why I was having all these wild visions. In response to my heavy emotions, I felt a lick of power rise up and around my shoulders and head.
The term for that feeling of gold psychic energy wreathing around me was a "Corona", I suddenly knew. Just like Sebastian. Sebastian and I were the same sort of 'thing', the same sort of being.
Fuck...
Are you the Inheritor? Lian asked me again as I had my crisis.
My stomach turned, and my mouth went dry, but I knew. There was no escaping it now. I knew it beyond all denial.
I am, I said, pushing my words to him with an extra jolt of power, and exhaled.
Of course, with those two words, Lian flinched heavily. He once again knelt on the floor, his head bowed in submission. I'm sorry for my insolence. I did not know. We did not think it would be a woman. I will serve faithfully and without question to my death. When I speak with my brothers, they will serve faithfully as well. Ave Imperatrix, he quickly said to me. Of course he said all that. Of course.
"...and the English didn't want to surren- what? What's going on?" Alberich had stopped talking about the ballroom painting, and had turned toward Lian and I. The Fallen was still kneeling.
"Get up, Lian," I instructed the marine, who instantly obeyed. Wolfie stood watching me, his tail wagging and head cocked in concern.
Your halo glows. Is everything alright? Alberich asked me with concern in mind. My head had begun to ache. At the same time, Null was now eyeing me suspiciously.
I consciously pulled my Corona back inside myself. It was like dimming a lantern. "I'm fine, guys. Let's just keep checking out this gallery. Just relax." Crossing my arms, I walked to the next piece of art to the left of the ballroom painting. This one was a rendering of some kind of vicious black wolf monster in a lethal fight with a large red dog-like creature with horns and scales. It looked like a flesh hound of Khorne, but I wasn't sure. At least I didn't recognize this one.
"What was that about?" Null quietly asked as he stepped up beside me.
"I needed to clear something up with Lian. Are you at all familiar with the names of Tuchulcha, Oroborus, and Plagueheart?"
Null did not respond immediately. "I see..." the tech-priest replied slowly as he glanced back at Lian, his animated eyes pink and vaguely smiling. The Fallen began to walk over to us, his head bowed. "It seems that the wicked Evanora of the East wasn't the only force that was trying to punch a hole in this reality. We will need to speak about this further. And you," he pointed at Lian as he stopped near us, and raised his voice. "Perhaps you aren't as bad as your fellow renegade heretics would have me believe. The official rumor from on high was that those engines were lost. Worry not, I will not divulge your secrets, but I am forced to admit that I am impressed. Clever, clever," the tech-priest admitted with wry amusement.
Lian said nothing, his expression stone.
Alberich dryly coughed nearby as he stood beside the daemon dog fight painting, and spoke up, "If we are done with the posturing, I would like to see if there are more mysteries among these paintings. The scene in the ballroom looked like it could be from my universe."
"Yes, of course. With the, eh, Scion's direction, we may continue to examine this museum. I would advise you all to stay close to me, as my vision is keen enough to see through most traps, if they are active. And, I have my light," Null said. His tenor voice had a vague sort of warble to it, as if he were very emotionally charged.
My head swam as I turned and began to walk hastily to another piece without waiting for the rest of my group. I wanted to be alone, but that wasn't an option right now. I came to a painting that hung in the shadow. Better to concentrate on checking out these mysterious paintings than think about what Tzeentch might have planned for me in the long term, considering what had happened to Sebastian. Okay, I need light to see. Should be easy enough for me. In this universe, I'm some kind of psychic monster of unique holy power, so I can do this. I held out my hand, and visualized the gold in my Corona turning into a lantern that I could use to light the way. Let me just try and...
A fireball of sparking golden light the size of a beach ball appeared hovering ahead of me, blazing like a spotlight. This caused my crewmembers to cry out before I willed the fireball to wink away. Momentarily blinded, I stood there feeling sorry for myself again. Great job, loser. This universe is fucked if they think I can help them. Sucks that they got me instead of someone useful.
"Sorry guys. My bad. I was just trying to light up this room and got a little carried away. Crazy ass Traveler magic, I guess."
I wanted to lay on my bed back home and stream movies. I wanted to feel safe and secure again, and as Dorothy said, there was no place like home. Sebastian didn't want this, and neither did I. Oh god, I didn't want this. People in Mary Sue fics always seemed to have an easier time with this sort of power, relishing in it and enjoying their new skills in their new universes, taking to it like a duck to water. They made it look so easy, righting wrongs and fighting injustices. But, when actually faced with it being a reality in this universe, I found myself deeply cringing away from it. This setting literally eats people alive, and I wouldn't have Tzeentch's support if he didn't think I could just be manipulated along for his amusement. He planned Sebastian's fate, and he planned everything with me too! I was stuck, and saved in his Hell! There was nothing I could do about it! I realized I had been biting the inside of my lip so hard that it began to bleed, and my ears rang. My vision began to blur as I started to hyperventilate. Wolfie began to scratch at my leg in concern.
"Don't be like me", Sebastian's warning rang in my mind again. Too late for that on some points, I guess.
Null walked to where I stood freaking out next to the new painting that hung in the darkness with Lian and Alberich in tow. He didn't ask me what had happened, and simply held out his light mechadendrite to illuminate the painting.
To my dismay, I recognized this one too, or at least the subject matter. It was a painting of a familiar man with white-blond hair in a perfectly tailored black modern suit floating beside a Lord of Change who was bent happily over a giant spinning wheel. The painting was so realistic that I could almost see the fabric of the man's suit rippling in the currents of the Warp around him, and the motion of the spinning wheel the greater daemon used. The man's expression was that of sadistic intelligence, and I could almost hear him as he turned to me and said, "So, I'll ask you again now. What do you think?"