I was screaming!
A white featureless void surrounded me as if I was staring directly into a spotlight! A salty mixture of tears and blood fell from my eyes as I frantically blinked in terror, screaming at what I had just experienced!
I was blind!
Even when I closed my eyes, I could only see white. The only thing I could feel was fiery pain right down through my skeleton, and it felt as if I was being continuously struck by lightning. The residual visions of seeing myself on the Golden Throne of Terra, and the sensations of having a second alien soul subsuming my own were cycling through my mind in a whirlwind. The searing metal of the throne I sat on felt like I was sitting on a hot electric cooking range. A drop of blood from one of my eyes fell into my mouth, which caused me to panic even more, causing me to scream even louder. I was blind! I was blind!
"Help her off the throne!" I heard a male voice distantly speaking to someone else. He sounded upset, I reached desperately forward, convulsing and bleeding from every orifice in my head. "Astartes! Get up! Help her! The presence is gone!"
I sensed a large shape moving near me, and I could somehow tell that Lian was trembling, greatly spiritually unnerved. Easily, I was able to pick up his anxious thoughts. It is blasphemous to stand higher than the Golden Throne. I am committing heresy. It is blasphemous to stand higher than the Golden Throne. I am committing heresy, he repeated over and over inside his mind, completely unable to react to conscious stimuli.
"Get me off! Get me off!" I screamed in a loud, resonant voice, and I felt the throne detach me. Every cell of my body felt like it was on fire! I frantically reached out again, unable to see anything but the terrible white void. I promptly pitched forward to fall on the metal floor, screaming and bleeding. My voice began to crack. "I'm blind! I'm blind!"
I received a mental image of the Fallen flinching in fear as I continued screaming on the floor. I could feel a sort of existential dread reaching through him, and he had started backing away from me, not knowing how to parse what he had seen.
"Scion!" I heard a different male voice over me. "He's gone! He's gone now!"
Through my panic, I could easily sense fear on the bridge. Everyone was afraid to touch me, it seemed. Somehow, I knew that they were perceiving that light was spilling from me. I sensed that my Corona was involuntarily lit, aflame and wreathing me like a cocoon.
"The mutant isn't moving either," the Fallen quietly observed nearby in a daze, still unable to react at the situation before him.
I continued screaming. I couldn't help it. Memories of having my soul bled out of me for energy tore through me over and over again. Memories of seeing Sebastian on the Yellow Brick Road, and feeling his absolutely overwhelming presence and finding it to be completely alien made me wretch in between breaths as I screamed. The Emperor wasn't human, nor was he even close to human! I knew what had happened now. He... he had been forcibly transformed into something else by this ship! And now, the ship was in the process of transforming me! What was happening to me, and why am I only finding out about this now?!
My new gold eyes, my increasing psychic strength, my gold Corona, my ability to intimidate, my weird aggressive behavior I had been occasionally feeling... it all made sense now! It wasn't just a natural ability that came from being a Mary Sue Traveler; I was being transfigured!
More screaming. Everything was blinding white. Blood continued to drip from my nose, eyes, and ears. All I could feel was the sensation of being confined to the Golden Throne, and the visceral agony of it. I clawed at my own skin, wondering if it was still human, and wondering if I was still alive. Heat and electricity crawled from my skeleton, and outward to radiate through my skin. I was blind! I was blind!
Can you hear me? I heard a mental voice cut through the noise of my own terror. The surprise of hearing a strong psychic voice actually caused me to pause in my panic. My pain did not cease, but at least I had stopped screaming. Good, you can. Good. This is Virgil. You are bleeding. You have just been blinded by being in close proximity to the Emperor's light.
"What?" I audibly choked out, taking a shuddering breath as I struggled to control myself. A wave of burning electricity coursed through me, causing me to arc my back reflexively in pain. "V-virgil?" More blood flowed into my mouth, and I dry heaved as I lay on the floor.
"I think he sanctioned you. You're blind, yes?"
I took a deep breath, and hoarsely composed myself. Stop it, stop it. Calm down, I demanded of myself, directing my conscious attention away from the electric agony inside me. Between gasps, I was able to miserably croak out, "Yeah, I can't see. I'm b-blind. Blind. Everything is white! S-something else than sanctioned. Something else. Everything f-feels like burning!" I then began to shiver violently again, still on the floor. "I... I saw him! He p-p-possessed me! He t-told me so many things! Are w-we s-safe now? Are we out of the D-deadly Desert?"
No one said anything. Oh, I was the captain, I slowly realized. I was the one who needed to ask the ship that.
"Divine R-retribution, where are we?" I weakly asked, retching again on the floor as I spasmed in pain.'' This was all too much!
Silence. My crewmembers were standing around me, unwilling and afraid to touch my radiant burning body.
"Is everything okay? W-w-why isn't the ship responding?!" I questioned in alarm, trying to pull my head up. Everything was still a bright void before me, and I kept blinking my unseeing eyes. The Fallen nearby blazed with spiritual intimidation, and cringed away from the direction of my blind gaze.
"The central display is communicating that information. I'll read it out for you," Virgil replied. "Location: Materium, Fuel capacity: 67%. Parson Shield capacity: 6%, Void shield capacity: 39%, Beacon: off. That's what it says."
6% Parson Shield? Did that mean I had 6% of my soul remaining? Wow, we probably should stay out of the Warp for a little while, I thought with feeble humor. I really fucked up this time, haven't I? My lips pulled into a faint smile, and I began to laugh at my ridiculous circumstances, much to the chagrin of my crewmembers. I curled up further into a fetal position, giggling madly at how crazy the last two weeks of my life had been.
The ship then audibly intoned, "Warning: Extreme psychic exhaustion, heavy psychic stigmata, and moderate bodily damage detected on captain. Minor psychic stigmata and minor physical damage detected on secondary navigator. Warning: Parson Shield critically low. Approaching world, TJ-157. Estimated arrival time, 57 minutes."
Oh no, another new planet? Fuck me, no more space adventures! I'm fucking done! Why are we landing here? I had lost consciousness midway through the Emperor lecturing me and tearing chunks of my soul out for food. Did he order us to land there? I groaned in both pain and frustration. "Divine Retribution, where are we landing? What's this world like? And tell me audibly." Hopefully not another shitty fucking planet with mysterious danger pyramids, cursed xenos artifacts, chaos space marines and fucking entropy tornadoes.
"TJ-157: Class E planet. Classification: Dead World. 1.17 gravity. 1.06 standard rotational time. .006 standard atmospheric pressure. Negligible atmosphere. Full pressure suit required."
Was it really dead, or was there some kind of terrible secret that we would discover that would fuck us up if we went outside? I cleared my hoarse throat as I weakly tried to pull myself up into a sitting position. As I regained control of my mental facilities, I found that my pain was subsiding. "Okay. Every... everyone, l-listen. N-no one goes outside. We're just... we're just going to stay on this dead world somewhere for a l-little bit, got it?"
"Of course," Virgil said. "We obey."
Nearby, I could sense that Lian was finally snapping out of his fugue, and I heard him kneel down next to me on the floor.
"Tell us what to do," Lian quietly requested, a slight choke in his voice. "Please just tell us. Tell us. Tell me." I could sense the proximity of the Fallen's holy sword as he leaned down next to me. In a strange way, it seemed to comfort me a little. I could focus on the sensation of the warmth radiating from that blade nearby instead of focusing on the supernatural fire that still raced through my blood. Wow, Lian had the Lion Sword, I remembered.
"Everyone else," I spat a gout of blood on the floor. "T-tell me about everyone else. Is anyone dead? B-bird Nazi guy? The Tin Man? The... the, uh, the B-blank witness ladies? Moray and Ennui, w-whatever their names are? Is anyone dead?" I babbled the questions, forcing myself to breathe heavily on the floor as I remained lightly shivering. "The Em-emp...Emp... he went after Alberich. Almost killed him, but I said no. Emps calls me 'little sister', says I'm changing."
A very heavy pause, and I heard the light metal scraping of Lian's ceramite armor.
"The bird mutant is unconscious. He bleeds from his ears, and remains on his throne," Virgil replied, kneeling down on the floor to speak to me. "The others, I will check. Null appears to be gravely injured."
So, the Emperor didn't kill Alberich, but he had knocked him unconscious. No wonder. He was a mutant that had mouthed off to the fucking Emperor, I remembered now. The beastman had called the Master of Mankind a daemon. Really bad move, dude. I began laughing softly again. Alberich was actually lucky to be alive considering his weird connections to Tzeentch. He probably shouldn't be attached to that throne right now, I concluded.
"Divine Retribution, d-detach copilot," I croaked out. My throat was raw. "H-help me... help me off the floor," I said, my teeth chattering so hard that one of them chipped. "N-null is injured. How bad?" I asked as I flashed back to the tech-priest taking a hit from a sonic blaster from only a couple paces away and getting thrown off the road. He was lucky to be alive at all. My Corona began to dim as I began to calm down.
"The situation is dire, I'm afraid," Virgil replied solemnly. "Tech-priests of Mars are typically more resilient than fleshy beings, but much of his circuitry is destroyed, and he is unresponsive to stimuli. I know that his core may be damaged, but I am no tech-priest doctor and cannot diagnose problems."
Leaning his holy blade against my throne, Lian then gently grasped me behind my shoulders, and easily picked me up to hold my body like a sick child in his arms. I curled up in a fetal position as he held me. While I was still blind and still burning up, at least I had stopped screaming. I could feel that the Fallen was trembling under his power armor, also finding this action somehow "blasphemous".
"Okay, well, what do we do?" I asked, trying to swallow everything I had seen without screaming again. "So Null is dying? Am I hearing you correctly, Virgil?" Lian's power armor had been damaged at some point, I felt, idly touching a dented area on his breastplate that hadn't been there before. "Take me to my room, Lian," I requested.
The hologram cleared his throat as we began to depart from the bridge, leaving Alberich alone. "I... I'm not certain about the archmagos," Virgil stated, his voice slightly choked. "I regret that I am not skilled in medicine, but I do know that he's-" the hologram paused, considering what to say. "I don't think he's coming back from this without intervention."
A mental image flashed in my mind, and deeper within the ship, I witnessed the broken form of the tech-priest sprawled on the floor. Two servitors stood motionless around him, almost in some sort of vigil. I blinked my blind eyes at seeing this, and then remembered something Sebastian had told me. I apparently had a special ability called the "Sight", which is unique to... creatures like me. I now knew that it was a form of heightened clairsentience and temporal manipulation that went beyond normal psyker skills. It could both sense and manipulate probability and manifestation using the fate-bending abilities of the Traveler's soul magnified and perfected by the Divine Retribution. To put it simply, it almost felt like it was a fancy way to describe stacking the deck in my favor with a twist of plot armor. At high level, it even seemed to be able to manipulate matter without the corrupting touch of the Warp, which was closer to the ability of a C'tan than a human. That was incredible, but since I was nowhere near Emperor strength, I couldn't do the wild stuff he could do, at least not yet. But, maybe I could use the Sight to help Null here?
I took a deep breath, and pushed my senses forward, pulling into the well of my being like Sebastian had done. Around me, I felt my Corona brighten as I lay in Lian's arms, and in my mind's eye, I saw Null on the floor again, but the image was more coherent. He was bleeding both thick red blood, and some kind of black oil, and I could tell that he was gradually losing power from some kind of battery in his core. Deep within, I knew then for certain, these injuries were mortal. Without intervention, he would die.
Pushing the ability further, I tried to see if I could find a way to heal him, to force his broken body to mend. I found that I had apparently been taxed to my limit earlier, and I felt a sudden stabbing migraine. Blood began to trickle from my ears again. However, I was able to pick up one odd thing with my enhanced perception. My Sight was still somehow showing me that he would live, but that something "alien" would save him. What was that?
We continued walking down the hall of the Divine Retribution's straightened neck, and I shifted myself in Lian's arms. "Virgil, do you know of anything at all that might help him? I'm talking anything, even if it's on the heretical or alien side. I'm too messed up to heal anyone, but there has to be something."
The hologram was silent for a moment as we strode down the hall toward my quarters. "Well, yes, there... there may be, but it, well, it is not very orthodox," he carefully spoke.
"Tell me," I instructed, starting to lose patience, causing Lian to flinch as he held me.
Another long moment as Virgil carefully weighed what to say to me as we walked. "Null has, over his life, collected many xenos artifacts from the places he has ventured to. Very few do I understand, but well, just yesterday, when he and I were meeting in his workshop here, he spoke about one artifact that he had been studying that had captured his attention. He... he said that it was Necron tech, and that it had the ability to heal metal flesh, to mend it back into the memory of what it had previously been. He spoke of a lot of other things, much of which I did not properly understand, but Null did tell me that... that at some point after his tests were completed that he was looking forward to integrating the tech onto himself. He was very excited about it."
This was certainly convenient. Null was hoarding mysterious xenos tech and he hadn't told me? Well, color me surprised. "What is it, this thing?" I asked.
"He told me not to speak to anyone about it..."
"You're going to tell me what it is right now," I growled, getting upset. "I outrank him. Tell me."
Even though he was a hologram, I could sense that Virgil was now trembling in fear; he quickly answered me. "A belt. A-a jeweled belt. It came from a Necron world, I was told. Null has been studying it nearly constantly since my resurrection. 'Unmatched regenerative properties', he said."
Why did that sound familiar, I wondered. I closed my eyes, and I found that I had actually hit my psychic limit a long time ago today, and couldn't use the Sight anymore. "What do you need to do with the belt to save him?"
"I... I think we just place it upon him, like a normal belt. Nothing more. From what I understood, that's all."
"Okay," I murmured. So, Null was going to die for certain if we didn't do this. We were drifting into 40k trope territory once again. Misuse of xenos tech was definitely on the "40k disaster bingo" card, but we didn't really have much of a choice. "Do it, then, Virgil. Put the belt on Null. If he somehow turns into a Chaos Spawn or a Necron or something we'll have to kill him, I guess. I'd like him to live, so we have to take a chance."
Virgil responded with a shaking affirmative, "Yes, y-yes, my Emp-uh, Scion. Thy will be done. I go now." I heard the snapping electric sound of the hologram phasing out of existence, no doubt teleporting to where Null was bleeding.
Lian was now walking inside my suite, and he gently laid me down on the ragged bed. "Thank you," I said to the Fallen.
"You appear to be injured," Lian observed in a soft voice. "Tell me what you wish of me, and I will perform this task."
"Go and help Virgil with Null, Lian. Take your sword just in case. And Lian?" I pulled myself up on the bed, and tried to smile in his general direction. "Thank you again. We killed that asshole. We destroyed a daemon prince! If I could give blessings or something right now I'd do that, but I'm still figuring out how this works myself. This isn't my home universe, after all."
Lian did not respond for a few heartbeats, and I could feel that he was radiating emotion, and was having difficulty articulating himself with something. I felt him brace himself for bravery before he began speaking again.
"I beheld a vision of what you would become when he possessed you, and our brave future," the Fallen confessed in a voice like faraway thunder, and I could hear him kneeling next to my bed. "You... you were very tall, very strong, and you were like a living angel of retribution against the enemies of mankind. Many rallied to your banner across the galaxy. You wore a crown of laurels on your head, and you waged war with two white blades against the beasts of the Black Legion. I saw this. Throne, I even saw you in a duel with..." he paused, and I could now feel overwhelming adulation shining from him. "I saw it!" A warble in his voice as he paused to catch his breath. "I am... I am ashamed at my earlier behavior. As my brothers said, I was a coward. No one considered that a woman would be summoned, and my pride and assumptions got the best of me. When I contact the rest of my order, they will see, and the galaxy will know you. They will bow. This I promise. My name as Cowardly Lian will know absolution in bravery, this I swear."
I blinked my blind eyes. That sure was a lot to take in, and I didn't feel like dealing with it right this minute. "Well, any encounter with the Emperor is going to be, uh, powerful, to say the least. Let us discuss this when everyone has had more rest. Right now, please go and help Virgil out. You and Virgil talk to me telepathically if you need me."
"Yes, my Empress," Lian said automatically, jumping to his feet. He left my room and I could hear his heavy footsteps as he dashed right back to the bridge to retrieve his sword.
Space Marine endurance was incredible, I idly thought before remembering what Lian had just called me. "Shit," I quietly swore, and shook my head. I could feel dried blood caking the dirt and silt on my cheeks, and my hair was matted up from the wind. At least I was blind so I didn't have to see how much of a mess I was. This was even worse than escaping Kolch. I reached up to pick at the flakes of dried blood around my eyes, self conscious. "They could've summoned an army guy, or a politician from my universe. Instead, they get me, some random nobody who does shitty art and writes shitty fanfiction. This universe is screwed now, I guess."
Alone in the blinding white void that was my bedroom, I continued attempting to center myself, trying to make sense of everything. My situation just kept getting worse. I was completely blind and completely fucked up from having the Emperor's soul possess me and then do crazy space-time acrobatics to guide us away from Nubua. While it had been necessary, the strain this had put on me had been terrible. Aside from bleeding everywhere, new imported memories flew like frightened birds in my mind, racing through my thoughts so quickly that it was difficult for me to actually contemplate them critically. One thing definitely did stand out, though.
The Divine Retribution was altering me, body and soul, transforming me into something that wasn't human. It was actively bending me around to suit itself. It was doing this through the Key as I devoured souls, compounding my psychic strength to new levels. This explained my changed eyes, hair, and gold aura. Was my behavior being influenced too? Looking back, I remembered how ruthless I had suddenly been when hunting down the Ebon Hare. I hadn't even tried diplomacy, and instead, I had pursued that little ship until it blew up. I still felt horrible that I had done that; it had felt as if my normal human conscience had been silenced.
I needed to calm down, and in relief, I remembered Virgil's psychic calming chain. Blindly, I grasped outward and searched for the table in my suite. I discovered the metal water jug and a cup (which I promptly knocked to the floor), but as soon as I found my heavy "chill-out" chain, my thoughts began to slow down.
Sitting on my ragged bed, I passed each of the metal links over my fingertips, concentrating on my breathing, and trying to relax. I vaguely wondered who had summoned Sebastian away from his universe. In my case it had been Evanora on Levant in her little circle... or, had it been Lian's shadowy order? Wait a minute, didn't Tzeentch have something to do with this too, and didn't Tzeentch hate the Emperor? Why would he bring another potential Emperor figure into this universe? I still didn't understand a lot of what was going on, and Molech was still awhile away. If I could get there and leave as quickly as I could, I'd be okay, right? I didn't want to end up like Sebastian.
I reached down and picked up the metal cup I had knocked over, and sat up to pour myself some water from the jug. No Null means no servitor slaves to serve me, I guessed. I hoped that Null would survive; he really was indispensable. A quick dip with my general psychic senses saw Virgil floating through narrow gold hallways carrying a wide belt covered in jewels and tinkling charms. Outside, I distantly heard Lian running down the hallway to retrieve his mighty daemon-killing holy sword. I was still in awe that the Fallen was actually in possession of the damn Lion Sword. Didn't he say that Cypher was supposed to come looking for it? Was that shadowy edgelord going to start chasing us around now? Fuck.
Maybe a bath would help relax me, I wondered after a short time of drinking water and grasping my calming chain. Slowly, I began to peel off my bloody, dusty clothes. I discovered that I had an large burning abrasion wound on my back from when Grikk'ahn had thrown me to the road, as well as what felt like sunburn on the skin of my upper body. When I was unbuttoning my shirt, my fingers found the Nemeses Argentum, and a I felt an electric spark snap at me when I touched it.
"Damn magic scissors bit me..." I grumbled. I reached into my shirt pocket, and removed the shears. They were strangely warm, and also, I could feel that they now seemed longer. They were easily the length of a good-sized dagger now. Had they grown again? I gripped the shears with my right hand, feeling their weight. Holy daemon-killing scissors, I thought. Well, isn't that something? Sebastian got a cool sword, and I got magic scissors. Perfect. I still didn't really know much about this artifact. Would these scissors become huge and scary if I got strong enough? I drew them across the air in a short arc. I don't know how many more daemon princes I'd be killing if I remained blind, though. I placed the artifact on the table.
Blinking, I tried to see if any of my vision had returned. It wasn't getting better. I removed my shirt, and since it was saturated with blood and dirt, I threw it on the floor. What was I going to do if I didn't get my vision back? I gripped the calming chain tightly.
What was I going to do if I couldn't ever get home? What was I going to become?
Before I could even get my trousers off, I was suddenly beset with cathartic wracking sobs. I leaned over on the bed, ugly crying. I never, ever wanted this. Wasn't this sort of power something that Mary Sues wanted? Vast power and strength? Having people look at you like a heroic living god? Maybe in another universe, but not this one! This universe eats people like potato chips, I reminded myself. They call it "grimdark" for a reason, because that's what it was. Sebastian had been in my position thousands of years ago, and he, despite his unfathomable power, had still failed. This was one of the worst places you could find yourself isekai-ed into, even if gifted with incredible strength.
"Fuck," I said. "Both I and this universe are totally screwed."
I would just have to leave before I became too messed up from my attachment to the Key and the Divine Retribution. An unwelcome whisper of, "maybe it wouldn't be so bad?" then intruded in on my anxiety, but I shut that down. Sebastian had still failed despite how powerful he was, and I had to remember that. I had to leave. I had a fast awesome spaceship, so I had to find a way to get to Molech in one piece.
My thoughts then drifted to what I had learned about the Divine Retribution. The spaceship I was attached to was absolutely incredible, I definitely had to admit. No wonder Null went crazy when the Imperium had wanted to cut it open. It was priceless, and it wasn't just pre-Fall Aeldari tech like I had thought, but goddamn War in Heaven shit. It wasn't quite clear on who had built it, but Sebastian seemed to think it was the product of some Old One Warp engineering for use against the Necrons, which explained why Orikan and Trazyn seemed to be knowledgeable of its existence. Whatever it was, it was clearly an incredibly powerful weapon. It even had its own little mini Astronomican that it could use as beacon! And, my god, did using that heading beacon hurt! Using that function in any consistency would probably have to wait until I was healthier and stronger.
Standing up, I went to remove my trousers. As I took them off, I felt something hard and ovoid inside one of the pockets. I reached inside, and discovered the glowing spirit stone that I had found on the Aeldari corpse on Nubua. While I couldn't actually see it, I could definitely somehow sense that it was glowing. It also felt both hot and cold in my hand, and I received random images of what appeared to be a Aeldari Ranger bravely fighting a large Chaos Marine in the colors of the Angels of Ecstasy. If we ever ran across any Aeldari, this might be useful for making friends. I placed the spirit stone on the table with a clatter.
Alright, time for a bath. I held my arms out, I began to blindly walk to the bathroom, holding the calming chain in my left hand.
Psychic words from Virgil made me cry out in surprise and almost fall to the ground. I am now here with Null with the xenos artifact.
Wait for Lian. He should be there in a moment; he is running to you, I suggested as I picked my way to the tub. I realized that I was dizzy, and that I really had been drained to my limit. Brief vertigo caused my world to spin for a moment before I found my balance. My hands found the faucet, and I started filling the tub. The gurgling water was very nice to listen to.
He just arrived, Virgil replied after a short time. Is, ah, there a reason he bears that holy sword with him here?
Insurance in case something goes wrong, I'm afraid, I responded. Using xenos tech is dangerous, but we have to take a chance, otherwise Null dies.
I am saddened that I agree with that, but your wisdom is sound. Null truly is a brilliant archmagos, so I have faith that his earlier judgement on this artifact was sound. Shall I apply the belt? Where should I put it? The hologram asked me with anxiety as he held the belt in his hands.
Just put it where a normal belt would go, I guess? I offered.
Did all this mean I was the Omnissiah too? That couldn't be right, I thought, listening to the water flow into the tub. I was happy that I still had Null's Mechanicus lye soap and my comb on the sink, so I could at least clean myself up. Another wave of vertigo struck me, and I gripped the rim of the tub for stability. Without warning, in my mind's eye, I was struck with another vision. In my weakened state, this caused me extreme discomfort, and I almost toppled forward onto the bathroom floor.
The area of space that had been the Broken Desert of Nubua, a dust cloud spanning over a thousand light years in over an irregular band of forbidden dead worlds, flashed in brilliant white-gold light against the deep void of space. It brightened like a supernova for one final time, and then, it vanished as if it had never been, not even leaving atoms behind. Nubua and all the Independent Empires had vanished, leaving only shadowy memories in very few places. While it made me sad to witness, I was glad that the ancient ghosts had achieved some kind of peace. Intuitively, I knew that the event had definitely been seen. Multiple parties had witnessed this event at a distance, and were already shouting questions to themselves if this was related to the sudden brightening of the Astronomican. A solitary individual in a tiny craft raised a bottle of liquor to the event as he witnessed the stellar pyrotechnics in a drunken toast, and slurred, "Here's to you, gold bird; let's hope you're dead!"
Was he referring to me? "Well, sorry buddy, I'm not dead," I whispered audibly, wondering who that guy was but too tired to care.
I waited for Virgil to get back to me as I sat on the rim of the tub, clutching the calming chain and trying not to ruminate too much. Hearing nothing after a handful of minutes, I then carefully dipped into the warm water, and stretched out.
With a wince, I could now feel every single little cut and bruise on my body. The wound on my back burned with pain, and I hissed. It was probably good that I couldn't see right now, as the water I was in was probably turning black with all the dried blood, ash, and silt I was covered in. I began to untangle my hair with the comb.
Once again, I heard Virgil speak to me. So, we've attached the belt. It has latched onto Null's body. Here it is:
I received an image of Null laying on his back as he lay on a large bed somewhere on the ship. From here, I could definitely sense that he was severely damaged. Many of his mechadendrites were broken and bent, and his robe was blackened and torn. His metal chest was slick with blood and oil, and he was missing one of his left arms. Null appeared lifeless, and even one of the (currently black) animated eye displays on his face was cracked. Lian stood over the scene, clutching his holy sword and watching for trouble. The jeweled belt could barely be seen under the tech-priest's burned and bloodied robes, and was wrapped around his waist. My head began to hurt again, and more blood began to flow from my nose. I cut the image off for my own safety. While I was a lot stronger than I was on Levant, I still had my limits.
He no longer bleeds, and it appears to me that his core is no longer draining. What should we do now?
I guess we wait and see if he regenerates, I replied, massaging my temple as I held the calming chain. Tell Lian to set up a watch over Null if he can do it. Don't take chances.
I could feel that Virgil was speaking with Lian. What of the other injured? And who are the two women with the gold masks?
I yawned. I was absolutely exhausted. Go and see to the them. They are two very powerful Blanks, and they wear those masks to suppress their own auras. Long story, but we found them on Nubua, and they swore themselves to me. They're friends. I don't want Lian leaving Null's side, just in case, but if you can examine the women and see that they're not immediately going to die too, just see if you can put them in beds and make sure they're comfortable.
Understood, Virgil replied.
I felt like this sort of care was woefully inadequate, but I didn't have much of a choice here. Not only was I blind, but I could barely move. I pushed the bar of soap over my limbs, and felt how dirty I was when dirt began to accumulate under my fingernails. Would we ever go somewhere normal? Like, would we ever visit a planet where things weren't trying to kill us and the planet itself wasn't in peril? Had Sebastian had experienced the same kind of constant danger flying this ship? Maybe he did until he was himself was transformed into something even more dangerous before conquering Terra and capering around the galaxy on his Great Crusade. What would happen to me, I wondered again, shivering as I pulling my legs up to my chest as I lay in the bath. I didn't want this. I'm just some loser nobody, not an Empress-construct-thing.
I yawned again, and wondered about Alberich who had been left alone up on the bridge. He was just unconscious, and not about to die, so at least that was good. My thoughts then went to Wolfie, who had been cut down by a Noise Marine's power sword. Wolfie was an immortal Warp beast, so I assured myself that he'd be back. It really was neat that I had an astral hound as a pet, and I wondered if this Wolfie was the same Wolfie I had back in the real world when I was a kid. Probably not, but it was fun to pretend. If I was going to be the "Dorothy" in this whole thing, I definitely needed a "Toto", I thought with a smile. The little black Warp beast would definitely be back.
When I didn't hear any more immediate updates on Null's condition, I rinsed myself off, and stepped out of the tub, still blind and still not getting any better. Toweling off and putting on my robe, I fumbled my way to the bed. Maybe if I went to sleep, I'd wake up and everything would be fixed? I was totally spent, spiritually and physically.
I placed the calming chain under the remains of a dirty shirt to serve as a pillow, and I quickly passed out.