**Author's note: I'm planning on a large re-edit of this entire fic soon. This will not change the content in any way, but there were times when my editing was sloppy. This is simply to correct various issues with grammar/tense/spelling/etc. Thank you all for following Erika along on her fun adventures in chaos, madness, and cosmic horror!**
I held the towel that Alberich had given me to my bleeding head as our group silently made our way down the shattered hallway. My head ached miserably from the activation of the anti-Warp field of the pylon, but it gave me something to fixate on that wasn't the fact that I had just lost my mind and strangled someone so hard that I had snapped her fucking neck.
I stopped, which caused everyone else to stop. I turned around again, feeling a wave of nausea and self-loathing. Raula's body was now about twenty paces away, and I hadn't even been cognizant of the walk.
"My leader?" Alberich asked me.
"My leader..." I echoed back to him, my voice whispery and distant. "Doesn't that translate as mein Führer in German?"
The beastman nodded. "Yes, but, for a feminine leader, we would say 'meine Führerin'. I consider you my leader, the one whom I have sworn my loyalty to. Shall I call you 'meine Führerin' instead of my leader? I have left my last charge behind in my old universe. Does this upset you? Shall I call you by another royalty?"
Despite the Warp being muffled, the tension in this broken and burning hallway was intense. I turned to look at Alberich, and discovered that he was trembling, and could not meet my gaze directly.
I had always found it unnerving that this transplanted Nazi referred to me in the same honorific as Hitler, and actively (and glowingly) frequently compared me to the German dictator. He had told me that I had a divine destiny as a conqueror, and that it was my destiny to be this way, just as it was for Adolph Hitler.
I looked over his shoulder to observe Raula White's burned body in the shattered hall. Sighing, I then looked away.
"Call me whatever you like," I responded, entirely resigned. At least right now, I was a fucking monster, considering how I had behaved. It shouldn't be fun and exciting to kill someone like that.
We continued walking down the hall. I kept my head down as we walked, watching the massive scorched footprints that I had made in the green carpet pass by. I had apparently run down the entire length of this massive hall as a burning giant, and completely cornered the cult leader somewhere distant on the fourth floor of the west wing. This palace was immense, and I had remembered being told that it was approximately two kilometers in full sprawling size over a large area of land.
"Where are we going?" I finally asked Luukai as we passed another of my smoking footprints. I looked up at the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Did I really get that tall in real life? I touched the small cut on my forehead. Over three meters. I would have had to be at least three meters in height to strike one of those chandeliers. Wow, I had really actually been that tall! I had no idea how it had happened, but it both frightened and amazed me. I had actually been over three physical meters in real life height, and not just as a floaty gold projection ruining someone's day from afar. And, well, at least it hadn't happened somewhere with low ceilings.
Luukai answered me with, "We are walking to the central stairwell, the same one I think you flew up. The palace is still locked down, and now, the Warp is dampened, so we'll need to head down to one of the few unbarred windows to escape."
"Flew?" I asked in a daze. "I flew?"
The psyker bartender nodded, but then, shrugged. "Well, however you managed to get all the way up here in this short amount of time," Luukai responded. "We followed your trail of devastation to find you."
I blinked as we continued walking, patting my head. I was still dazed and somewhat disassociated. "But, what about all the crazy people in the ballroom? The daemons in the palace? What happened after I... uh... flew?"
Luukai paused, and made a "mmm-hmm" noise as we walked, and he then informed me with, "The daemons in the central ballroom have all been banished back to the Warp."
The Tzaangor cook (whose name was simply Zok) then stepped on a piece of broken mirror with one of his clawed feet, loudly shattering it. He rumbled, "Sorry," in a very deep, almost bovine voice. We continued onward.
Zok was a classic example of a Tzaangor. He was very tall, and stood at just over two meters in height. His horns were twisted and goat-like, and the left horn was broken at its midpoint. Under his black chef's uniform, the Tzaangor's skin was a bright robin's egg blue, similar to how Alberich used to look before his cleansing by the Divine Retribution. Zok's legs bent backward, and he had sharp talons instead of feet, and his left hand was wrapped in a bandage. As a birdlike mutant, he had a sharp beak, and a heavy brow that hung over a pair of wise green eyes. I somehow got the sense that Zok was old, and his expression often appeared weary. He was also very quiet, and when he walked, he barely made a sound, despite his fearsome appearance.
The psyker bartender began to further explain the situation. "Aside from the daemons, we were able to rout the remains of the corrupted ones, and we locked them in the theater hall. When your brightness increased and you ran to pursue Raula White, half of them simply lost their minds entirely and could no longer fight, and some even died on the spot. The remains of them we either killed or forced into the theater hall, and sealed the door," Luukai helpfully offered. "We then opened the servant's wing for the saner population, and we have left them to arm themselves before we went to find you. Some of them are praying to you, you know." He then cleared his throat, and added. "I don't know what you did to cause such madness with your mere presence, and forgive me for saying so, you must be certainly blessed by the Great Lord of Change to wield this power over the energies of the Warp. Our older brother is already anxious to meet you."
"I don't worship Tzeentch," I explained simply. I didn't feel like arguing theology right now, so I left it at that.
"Being the, uh, being what you are, I understand that, and forgive me for saying so, but Tzeentch chooses who will be in his flock eventually. He picks and chooses in his elaborate web of plans. Through the words of his servants, I am convinced of his favor of you."
"My friend, you should probably drop this particular discussion at the moment," Alberich informed the psyker, who then looked my way and nodded briefly as I continued plodding forward, still dazed and still experiencing a terrible headache. I could now see Raula White's struggling face in my mind's eye as I had gleefully killed her. How could I continue living like this? How in the fuck did the Emperor go through this without losing his mind? I briefly wondered what Sebastian had experienced during his time piloting the Divine Retribution (or in his case, the Divine Intervention). I then began to contemplate the names of our respective vessels: Did Sebastian end up feeling urges that compelled him to "intervene" like how I am currently feeling urges to retaliate and punish? Did he eventually become a force for "Intervention", and would I eventually become a force for "Retribution?" That... actually sounded really grim.
We walked for a short while until the quiet valet decided to speak up. "P-pardon me greatly for speaking on s-such subjects, but I have noticed similar things as my brother says, uh, God-Em-"
"Inheritor. Just call me that. Nothing fancy; I'm not God. No," I responded hoarsely as I nervously fiddled with the Key around my neck. It was slowly dimming, and finally, it was starting to cool. As I continued to willfully zone out, I stepped on a mirror shard, which crackled under my feet, surprising me.
"Yes, Inheritor. M-my brother Luukai and I, we share a talent for seeing those who are blessed in the plans of the Lord of Change. H-he has seen fit to leave us with few cosmetic gifts so that we can blend readily into most spaces so we can see the touch of our great lord."
"Oh my God, I'm sorry, but I really can't fucking deal with this right now," I snapped in great irritation. "Talk about how great your Chaos cult is some other time. Changing the subject, you two are brothers?"
There was a short pause before Luukai spoke up again, and he and his brother began to walk directly aside me. "Vadim and I are brothers, yes. We were both stationed here in the palace to act as eyes for the Blue Architects. Our elder brother is back at the hideout. He eagerly awaits meeting you, Inheritor."
"You know that the Grand Advisor knew all about you guys, right?" I said, further wiping up the drying blood from my face and neck. I was absolutely covered in sticky drying blood, and the smell of it permeated the air around me along with the smell of smoke and charred flesh. It turned my stomach. "I talked to him earlier. He knew that you two were in the palace and didn't say anything."
The brothers did not speak for a moment as we continued walking down the ruined hall. Another priceless tapestry fell into a burned ruined heap. Because of all the soundproofing in this palace, it was, aside from the crackling sounds of burning tapestries, and the buzzing of faulted electrical lines, eerily quiet in this hall. "Excuse the topic, but as we said, the Lord of Change makes his chosen known to us. The Grand Advisor is one of the greatest minds in the entire Conglomeration of Ev. In only a decade, he worked his way up to his position from nothing, proving his intelligence and social guile, which shines in the eyes of our god."
"Y-yes," Vadim added as we approached the end of this hall. "While n-not a member of our family, we are friendly to him. We offer him gifts of vintage liquors in thanks for his friendship and silence. H-he is a potent psyker as well, and a grand storyteller."
As Vadim spoke, I noted that he seemed to have a slight nervous stammer, and he definitely seemed like the younger of the two siblings. Like his brother, he was slightly taller than me, lean, fair-skinned, and had messy blond hair that was currently matted with blood. His dark valet uniform was torn, and his right forearm was bandaged. Luukai was about the same height, and had similar features, but carried himself with more confidence. Both brothers were attractive men, and completely free of any mutation, which was indeed unusual considering their religious alignment. Luukai, as I had seen earlier, was a very accomplished psyker, and it had been intriguing to see someone actually throw a magic lightning bolt in real life.
A massive broken set of double doors lay on the burning floor next to the central stairwell. It looked like a battering ram had broken them down, and it appeared that my large burnt tracks had come up from downstairs. I scratched my aching head, puzzling how I managed to do all this. I didn't even remember breaking any doors down, or climbing any stairs. Strangely, I found myself beginning to actually feel sorry for Raula White, as to her, I probably looked like a giant gold Balrog from Lord of the Rings chasing the cult leader down these wide halls and through the Warp. The mental image caused me to nervously laugh for a moment until I realized yet again that this would definitely define me as a "bad guy" in this situation. Between Alberich comparing me with Hitler all the time, and knowing that I was now the kind of person who could happily enjoy strangling someone to death, I was not having a good time this evening.
Some costume party this turned out to be, I scoffed. Can't have any fun, can't I?
Before we could head down the wide stairwell, a sliding noise caught my attention. Instantly alarmed, I reflexively tried to gather my energy, but found my well to be dry. A weird electric sparkle ran through my nervous system though, but I was beginning to blame that feeling on a side effect of the Spook drug, which was still active inside of me. I stumbled backward, trying to get away from whatever this new surprise was. No one else seemed to be worried, though, and soon, we saw the harried form of Rasputin emerging from a false panel in the wall beside the stairwell.
"What the fuck? You again?" I replied incredulously, stepping back behind my companions. This fucking guy, I swear!
"Greetings to you, Grand Advisor," Luukai greeted with a short bow. "I'm surprised the lift still works with all that happened."
The false panel actually appeared to be an elevator that had been built seamlessly into a wood sliding door next to the stairwell, and after the (now somewhat frazzled) Mad Monk stepped into the hallway, another unexpected figure emerged from the elevator behind him.
It was a man wearing a familiar purple costume, but he now wore a black cloak over his head as if to shroud his identity, as he had lost his mask. However, it did little to disguise his distinctive arrogant features, which were now pinched with anxiety, and wet with tears. His eyes were wild, watchful, and almost deranged.
"Evring Sinclair?" I asked, confused. "What the hell is going on?"
Evring froze as soon as he had stepped out of the elevator, and shivered as he clutched at his own shoulders as if very cold or terrified.
"Yes, Grand Advisor, forgive me, but what is going on?" Luukai now asked as he stepped ahead of me, his body language becoming somewhat aggressive. Behind me, I could hear Zok as he coughed in the smoky air, and a low growl escaped the Tzaangor's beak.
"I recognize Rasputin, but is that other man who I think it is?" Alberich asked beside me with a low hiss. "Is the rich lord who had been dressed as the purple cat this evening? The degenerate on the gold ship we first met while coming to this world?"
"Not so much a lord anymore, I suspect," Luukai responded. "What is the meaning of this? Do explain yourself, Grand Advisor."
"I would think that you'd have a little more respect for me, Luukai, after all we've been through together." Rasputin pulled Evring roughly forward by his arm, who appeared positively terrified, his eyes rolling like that of a spooked horse. Zok continued to growl as he watched the scene unfold. "Explain what we talked about, Justinian Evring Sinclair the fifth. You must convince them, not I. Bring your sanity back from the brink!"
Our little group stood around the cowering playboy in a circle as he began to stammer. Distantly, I heard what appeared to be the sound of groups of people yelling, but I wasn't sure if that was real or a Spook-based hallucination.
"I..." Evring began as he lowered his cowl. "I just... I figured some things out. I... My brother, and the governor... I..."
Rasputin nodded. "Very good, lad. Keep going."
"The governor. She, s-she knew of a planetary threat. She had visions. She had visions and met with these cult people about them. Didn't tell me, but my brother, she told him. And s-she... she can..." Evring shuddered. He reached up with both of his hands, and pulled at is short hair, actually tearing some of it out by the root. He shook his head. "She's not all human, I don't think. No. She's... not kept young by rejuvenat treatments like I thought. She... she steals people's heads. She uses forbidden tech to alter her body, and manipulate her soul. She steals people's heads!" Evring made a cutting motion across his throat with a finger.
Luukai and Vadim gasped in horror at this revelation, with Vadim even placing a hand over his mouth in fright.
"Yes, very good," Rasputin responded in a gentle tone. "Now, what about your brother? And about the future of this world."
"My b-brother knew! Warp take them both, they never told me! And then she... She. H-he..." Evring turned to Rasputin, and gave him a pleading look. In response, the Mad Monk curled his lip, and nodded. "I... I think they're going to try to put a daemon in the Statue of Libertine to protect against some aliens that are coming! They have to do some awful things to summon it, and they're trying to! Terrible things! They kept this from everyone! Everyone! I never knew! And Rose! Rose!"
Evring then covered his face with his hands, and muttered, "Rose" over and over again.
"You're almost done, sweet boy. Pity you were either drunk or partying these past years to see to any reason," Rasputin tutted as he produced the same bottle of liquor I had seen before in the linen closet. It was now only about half full, and the Mad Monk cheerfully (and heavily) drank from it as Evring continued to speak with fright.
"I never knew! I swear!" the Sinclair brother continued to weep. He then took a deep breath, and braced himself before speaking again. "Justi finally told me tonight! The plan w-was for the cult Family to hijack the Wheelers away from the control of the Tower of Reason! They planned to commit terror attacks that would cause chaos around the city. After the attacks, when everyone would be hurt and confused, they would then use the Wheelers to corral the undesirables of Evna to the statue, blaming them for the terrorist attacks, and... and sacrifice them to the statue. If there was any problem, the Blue Architects would be blamed instead. They had it all planned through the media too!"
"And with these terror attacks, they would also have had an excuse to call for martial law," Rasputin coolly said, placing his bottle back in his robe pocket. "...Which has since been called as of about ten minutes ago, by the way. These attacks targeted the signaling antennas that controlled the Wheelers, severing their control from the Tower of Reason, plunging the city into lawlessness."
Both Luukai and Vadim gasped in surprise again, and I could hear a low rumble from the Tzaangor behind me. The casualness of Rasputin's reveal of this harrowing information was unsettling. It almost gave me the impression that he had also known about this earlier too...
The infamous Russian monk grinned, and then motioned for Evring to continue with a wave of his long fingers. "So, my boy, what else did you see? Where did they take you earlier this evening? They tried to bring you in to the greatest of secrets, but you did not handle yourself well!"
Evring's face twisted in revulsion before he spoke, and tears began to flow heavily down his cheeks. "My brother took me to this hidden room. Second floor. It was filled with the heads of the past leaders of the entire Conglomeration of Ev! Governor Langwidere has not only been in power for hundreds of years, but over a thousand! Maybe even longer! This is all I know!" Evring then began to hyperventilate, his face twisted in shock. He then looked at me again. "Emperor, I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! I didn't know anything about this and I didn't know about that guy that wanted to kill you! Justi told me that he wanted to play a trick on you, so he had me lead you into a remote part of the palace! He said that it would be funny! I never knew that this was... was..."
Evring fell to his knees as he began to weep. "I'm sorry! I-I was misled!" The younger Justinian Sinclair then prostrated himself at my feet. "I-I..."
"All that isn't necessary, lad," Rasputin snarked, walking to his groveling form, and lightly tapped Evring's back with the butt of his gold eagle staff. "But, to all of you, what he said is true to the best of my knowledge. From what I understand, the city of Evna is under assault by the Family of Liberty, who now work in tandem with governor Langwidere. Even though I see that you managed to kill Raula White, the elder Justinian Sinclair is still in the palace, and he has gathered his most loyal cabinet members and favored high society sycophants in one of the other ballrooms. No doubt, they soon realize that the central ballroom has experienced a grave mishap, and that Matriarch Raula White has been dispatched before all her promised daemons could be summoned. Good show on that by the way, tsarina. I'm impressed."
"Justinian is still in the palace? Where? And where is governor Langwidere?" Luukai asked, his voice worried.
"The elder Sinclair is in the east wing ballroom," Rasputin responded calmly as he drank from his bottle of amasec. "From what I suspect, he's either performing some sort of ritual or giving a rousing speech to his favored high society nobles along with a small paramilitary force of guards, some of which are full Blanks. Governor Langwidere is, from what I sensed when the Warp was active earlier, making haste to the Tower of Reason to have a little 'talk' with the Magos in charge! Rumor has it that the Tower itself was a target for the terrorists, but the initial act against it failed."
"Please don't hurt him!" Evring suddenly pleaded to me as he abruptly stood back up, and clasped his hands together before me as if desperately praying. It appeared as if the playboy was losing his mind. "I love my brother! I love Justi! He's just confused, that's all! I had a bad reaction to hearing all this news, and-and he misunderstood, that's what! He still loves me! He loves his little brother and would never hurt him! Can't you just cast a magic spell to fix him? Please! I'll give you anything you want! Fix this for me!"
"So wait, I'm pretty confused here," I said, holding my aching head beside the stairwell as I flinched away from Evring. This entire situation was crazy, and from what Evring and the Mad Monk had informed us, the total decapitation of the police force from the Tower of Reason had apparently failed, but the terrorist attacks had still happened. I also didn't quite understand why the fuck Rasputin had magically appeared again with all this knowledge, and I didn't like it. This was really suspicious, and because the Warp was muffled to a greater degree than it had been before, I couldn't just break into his mind and see for sure.
I took a deep breath, and turned to Evring again, who was now wiping his face with a handkerchief. "Assuming Rasputin didn't drag you up here, why are you here and why did you come looking for us? How come you weren't so desperate to find me before? What happened?" I gave the Mad Monk a dubious look.
Evring began to explain with, "Because I-"
Rasputin immediately nastily interrupted him. "Because dear 'Justi' wouldn't let him in to his special locked wing of the palace, essentially leaving his dear sweet brother to the wolves of the lower class. Shortly after being informed of the governor's unique qualities, and the nature of the Family of Liberty, the younger Sinclair here had a nervous breakdown. Furthermore, poor Evring's fiancée Rose just left him for Justinian this evening. I suppose this somewhat explains his current disposition, poor lad. I found him hysterical and cowering in another storage closet on the second floor, and we had a little discussion. Didn't we Evring?"
"Please!" Evring pleaded to me with wide eyes. "Please help me, uh, Empress, please! We have to leave this world as soon as possible! I'm desperate! I'll commit myself to your divine teachings! I'll-"
"Stop, stop, stop," I said, shaking my head. "Try to get it together for me here. We've got to get out of here. Is there anything you can do to help us?"
"I-I have a lot of money in my offworld accounts! You can have it! I don't care anymore! Just please, don't kill me, and get me to my yacht so I can leave! If I can't get to Shower of Gold and leave very soon, they're going to completely arm the inner rim minefield once the governor gets inside the Tower of Reason and shuts it down! I'll be stuck here, stuck on a damned world with the aliens and the cult! Justi said so before he shut me out! I know he still loves his little brother because he said, 'get off this world if you can, Ev!'"
Holy shit, the minefield! I remembered with dread! This world was still surrounded by an interplanetary minefield that could be armed, completely trapping anyone inside this world!
Without missing a beat, Rasputin then coldly chuckled as he witnessed my horrified expression. "Oh yes, concerning the minefield, you should not worry about that, tsarina. I can handle it. I won't say much else, but I can deal with it."
"Do you have a code?" Luukai asked seriously. "Don't they change? I thought only the governor and the Tower Master could fully arm or disarm the entire minefield? Most of the time they remain passive, or they arm a few when an unauthorized ship is trying to land."
Rasputin was about to answer, but Alberich then interrupted.
"To trust this evil degenerate Russian monk is unwise, my leader," Alberich suddenly groaned beside me. "He corrupted Russia's history! Do not trust him! History paints him as notorious in our German books for a reason! I imagine it must be the same in your American books as well!"
Rasputin ignored Alberich's blunt warnings, and simply responded to me with, "All you need to know is that I should be kept alive, and that I can handle the minefield even if the Tower of Reason is breached. But, if we can get there fast enough, we can leave through Evring's departure code. If they fully arm the minefield for a threat, there's no escaping this world without my knowledge."
"But, wouldn't the minefield halt the aliens from invading this world?" Alberich asked. "It was explained to me that out here, its primary use was to defend against inter-planetary threats."
"Normally, yes," Rasputin elucidated, stroking his beard calmly with his bony hand. "But, from what I now understand, the visions that the governor and the cult experienced say that the aliens had a way to somehow bypass, destroy, or otherwise disable the mines. The visions could be false, yes, but the Family of Liberty cult is certainly very real. Again, I would advise that we leave this world, for between the aliens and the Family, it will soon not be a pleasant place to live."
My halo glimmered briefly, and I swayed on my feet again. I had also experienced vivid premonitions of Necrons on the surface of this world, and even one of the Nome King threatening Langwidere in person. "But... but if we leave, what about all the innocent people here?" I asked in a small voice. "All those people downstairs? All the little kids?"
All five hundred million people on this world...
There was a heavy pause as everyone watched me. Luukai broke eye contact with me, and shuffled his feet. I swallowed, and shook my head as I frantically whispered, "There has to be a way to fix this! There has-"
"Forgive me, tsarina, but, there doesn't seem to be," Rasputin responded in a low voice. "There is no Imperium here to call upon for aid, and even if the governor's and Raula White's visions of a fleet of xenos prove to be false, the grip and power the Family of Liberty has over this entire world is immensely powerful, and their plan to enact complete control is already in progress. Martial law is already in effect. The Wheelers are already malfunctioning, and daemons are already being summoned. You have no army, no soldiers, and only one warship. Even the Harlequins fled the palace as soon as their performance concluded! From what madness-stricken Evring has told me of his brother's actions, they have already begun their obscene rituals to the Statue of Libertine! This city has chosen its champion to defend against the coming xenos, and it isn't you!"
"And even if I kill the governor, and Am'Erika, the Necrons come here anyway," I mumbled to myself as I began to feel very woozy. I felt the strange Spook-induced tingling sensation pass through my spine again.
They followed us here, I realized again. I placed both of my hands up to cover my face in shame. The Necrons of Kolch followed us here for revenge.
This was all our fault, the anguished revelation passed through me like jagged shards of glass. We were the reason the Necrons were on their way here. They were on their way to avenge the destruction of their Tomb World, the world that I had destroyed by being an impulsive reckless monster that wanted to immediately murder people in a mercenary ship!
Evring began to cry out again in madness, and he wailed, his voice a strangled call of misery. I began to sway on my feet as I heard the younger Sinclair cry out, "I tried to talk to Justi! I tried! I-"
The world disappeared into a cloud of black stars, and a high pitched ringing noise pierced my mind.
"There is no other way to fix this, you ignorant bitch!" Raula's voice echoed in my mind as I toppled over.
I suddenly found myself slouching on the floor as Alberich kneeled to help me up. I had fainted. People were watching me with concern as the weird electric sensation raced through my nervous system again. No more Spook drugs for me, I thought as I spat a mixture of blood and bile on the carpet. At least not on days when I'm going to consume dozens of souls. I clutched my heart, and took a deep breath.
"...alright?" Alberich asked me a question as he held me up, but I didn't quite catch what the question had been. I began to nod anyway, but then I shook my head.
"So, we should... we should just go, I guess," I said with terrible resignation. I had failed. I had failed the people of this world, and the task that I had been given to help them. I had failed the humans I was supposed to help. I had failed the humans I was supposed to help.
And then, I was somewhere else. A very brief flash of a vision, something like a memory, but not quite. An imprint of a past event that I had never actually experienced as myself.
I was sitting on a broken stone column, and I held my head in my left hand. I was being tormented by my own failure. A loud thought echoed through me, repeating itself like a dirge. It jeered, "I failed the humans I was supposed to help" over and over again. In my right hand, I gripped a sword that was very hot. I was absolutely covered in blood, and a large group of people nervously watched me, and I could feel their fear and their awe. But also, I could feel something else. Something I didn't like.
I could feel their worship...
And it disgusted me!
I threw my sword down with such incredible force that it split a nearby boulder clear in two, and a sound resembling a thunderclap boomed through the air. I stood, and yelled at the top of my lungs from my formidable height, "Is this what you want?!" with such force that an older man near the front of the crowd immediately expired from a heart attack.
With a short gasp and a few blinks, I was then back to myself again. Wow, I should definitely not be taking any more if that Spook stuff, I thought. Sure, I could become a giant gold Empress-demigod and effortlessly throw gold fireballs around but my sanity was really taking a hit here this evening. I then noticed that Alberich was nudging me. Oh. "I asked, do you actually trust Rasputin?" the beastman asked me quietly, a suspicious look in his eyes. "And Evring as well? He has lost his mind! Are we... are we taking them with us?"
I took a look at our little group as Alberich helped me steady myself. The two blond psyker brothers stood whispering to each other while nervously eyeing Rasputin, who grinned in response to the attention. Evring continued weeping, covering his face with his hands in a full blown mental crisis. Zok simply leaned against the hallway wall here, not appearing surprised by anything.
We need to get the rest of the normal crew back to the Divine Retribution I thought. We've got to get out of here. Null was, to my understanding, at the Tower of Reason, which was very unfortunate. I knew that the Tower had flying shuttles, so hopefully the tech-priests within could escape to safety that way. Lian was at Port Aubergine with Librarian Rezel, who I was terribly worried for. The port terminal had apparently been blown up shortly before the pylon troubles began, and the last contact I had with the Librarian gave me the impression that he was grievously injured. At the very least, the Divine Retribution would respond to some commands by its crew, and...
No, wait...
If I recalled correctly, the ship had refused to respond under a null field of a certain power. It had only initially reacted to me once Null had reduced the power output by the blackstone pylon network on Levant. Basically, the ship wouldn't fly if the Warp was lessened too much. This was certainly a complication, I realized.
Evring's noisy crying brought me back to reality again, and now, Luukai was quietly asking me a question.
"What do we do, Inheritor? As one blessed by our god, I will listen to your instruction, and our hideout is open to you."
With the exception of Evring, everyone was watching me, and waiting for my instructions. I took a deep breath, and in a resigned tone, I replied with, "We have to try to get off this planet as quickly as possible." If the Necrons were following us, would they leave this world alone if we got off it in time? "Let's get to the tunnels. How many people can we take?"
Luukai immediately began to eye Rasputin suspiciously. "We'd rather have as few people as possible for reasons I mentioned back in the servant's wing."
"I understand your hesitance in allowing me in, friend," Rasputin responded with a grin, apparently understanding Luukai's reluctance to allow him passage. "I will stay here. I'll find a way to Port Aubergine on my own knowing what I know now," the Mad Monk said as he watched Evring. The Sinclair brother wept bitterly as he leaned against the a cracked mirror, not even listening to the conversation. "But, I have a suggestion, if I may. Take poor sensitive Evring with you. I have a feeling he can be of use to you in some manner. He owns that Warp-capable yacht of his, and if I recall, he keeps a crew on board at all times to fly off whenever whims strike him. He has a departure code, and as long as the minefield isn't fully armed, Evring can make it off world. Let me handle Justinian. I have a way with words."
"In all affairs of state, you really are the man to please," I quipped.
The Mad Monk nodded happily. No doubt this Rasputin had lots of hidden charms...
"What about Zok?" Alberich asked. The Tzaangor stepped over to us, and listened. Now that he was close, I could see that instead of a small gold ring in his ear, Zok had what appeared to be a larger silver hoop.
"You're really a cook?" I asked, intrigued. Maybe we could get an actual chef on board the Divine Retribution? Eating hot meals instead of weird paste rations all the time sounded appealing, honestly.
"Two decades of service in the palace, my lady," the beastman rumbled from above. "No psyker ability, and if you pardon me, I don't worship any gods and will not accept any divine master."
"He must be good if the ignorant racists of this palace employ him," Alberich remarked bluntly.
I couldn't help but be amused at Alberich's sudden distaste for racism, and choked a laugh. I then turned to Zok again, and asked, "So, feel like a new job on a spaceship? I'd be your captain. No health benefits, no pay, no retirement, and no vacation days. Small crew, and we only sometimes get along. But, you get a bed and you get to see new and exciting places in the galaxy on a legendary ship. Sound good? It doesn't look like you'll have this palace job for much longer."
The Tzaangor cocked his horned head, and closed his eyes. He then nodded, and said, "Very well. I accept. I have no family. Nothing tying me here. I'm an old mutant, and there isn't much for me on this world that hates my kind. I say again to you though, I hold no gods as my masters, even the one who allegedly mutated me as an infant into what I am now."
The two psyker brothers whispered to each other, and then, turned to us nervously. "We can't contact our older brother right now for full approval, but since we have both seen the blessings of our lord upon you," Luukai motioned to the devastated hall with both hands. "We can accommodate two extra."
"I hope no one is c-claustrophobic," Vadim spoke with a smile. "The tunnels are not spacious."
"What will you do?" I asked Rasputin as he began to walk into the elevator again. He pulled up his hood, which made him look mysterious and dangerous once again. The infamous Russian monk tapped his eagle staff once on the floor.
"After a leisurely walk that will give you nice folks time to make it to the tunnels, I'm going to give the east ballroom the terrible news that traitors have overrun and slaughtered the central ballroom, and I will mention the fate of Raula White. But, fear not, my loyalty will always lie with the Romanov name, and I will not betray you, tsarina. I will find a way to mislead them, and then, I will meet you at Port Aubergine."
"You make it sound so easy," Luukai said, suspicion now gripping his words. "You have always been our friend, but if you betray us this evening, you will invite the wrath of the Blue Architects."
Rasputin rolled his eyes. "As you know, I have a way with influence, and people seem to enjoy underestimating me. But, I want to leave this blasted world, and if this delectable little Romanov Empress has a way of escape to the greater galaxy, I will take it."
I immediately became uncomfortable at hearing these words, and turned away from Rasputin's lascivious smile. Holy shit, this guy was sleazy.
"His racial quality is easily seen, my leader," Alberich whispered to me, sensing my discomfort. "Duplicity, lack of propriety and honor, alcoholism, lechery, betraying his friends..."
"Just survival instinct, really," Rasputin said with a smile in his Russian accent, overhearing what Alberich had said. "This universe is dangerous, and I do what I can to continue living. I'll be seeing you all later, hopefully. Be safe, little ones!" The door to the elevator shut, and a low hum signaled that it had begun to move.
"Do not trust him, my leader," Alberich warned me again quietly, his ears lowered in caution. He shook his head. "It isn't just my personal distaste toward Russians speaking here. He is planning something, I fear. If the stories I have read about this man are even half true, he is dangerous."
"What choice do we have here, though?" I answered with a shrug. "Maybe he won't even make it to Port Aubergine? That place is far away."
"Knowing the Grand Advisor's clever nature, he will find a way, do not worry," Luukai responded to me in a reassuring way, not quite understanding our worries. "While difficult, I cannot deny his helpful nature. He has never betrayed us in all the years we have known him."
"Yeah, but he is completely betraying the people he was supposed to be working for right now," I remarked. No one said anything in response.
"W-we should be going," Vadim spoke up nearby. "If the Warp returns, we risk more dangerous situations such as what happened downstairs in the ballroom."
"Yeah," I replied, trying not to think about the entire population of humans on this world, and how it may end up that I could be responsible for their annihilation. The thought of it physically hurt. Maybe we could get out of here in time enough for the Necrons to follow us somewhere else?
"No more wasting time. We should get going," I said as our new little group began to cautiously walk downstairs, dodging mirror shards, small fires, and another fallen gold chandelier.