Author's Note: For those interested, there are now eight advance chapters on P-atreon (remove the spaces and dash): p-atreon/ SkySage24.
The Emperor led Isha to his private office, the first time she had been there in months. The Emperor gestured for her to wait a moment, placed a hand on the wooden wall, and some unknown sensor lit up.
"Authorization recognised," A robotic female voice said, cold and artificial. "Welcome, Lord Emperor."
The wall slid open to reveal a hidden mag-lev. But it wasn't just the mechanical defences that opened, Isha could sense the Emperor opening heavy psychic wards that he had layered over the wall.
Heavy, but subtle. Isha hadn't even noticed they were there on her previous visits to the Emperor's office. Now that she could finally sense them, she was more than a little taken aback at how intricate these were. These protections were sunk into the very rock and stone of the mountain, crafted through potent rituals.
The workmanship of the wards would have impressed even Lileath and Hoeth, such was their potency.
The only time Isha had seen such powerful and intricate wards on Terra were…around her own chambers. In the earliest days, when the Emperor had trusted her not at all.
These were slightly different, sacrificing power for subtlety. But not by much.
"Come," The Emperor said, stepping into the mag-lev. "Let us go."
Isha stepped inside the capsule, which was large enough to comfortably accommodate even the gigantic figure of the Emperor and a full company of Custodes. A holographic display panel on the walls was the only visible method of controlling the capsule.
"Take us to Project Gateway," The Emperor commanded.
"Request denied. Unrecognised xeno warp-entity detected. Activating countermeasures."
Isha tensed, ready to conjure forth armour as the panel flickered red and massive guns of an unfamiliar make descended from the ceiling. They were gleaming silver cylinders easily as thick as the Emperor's arm. Obviously Golden Age human technology, resembling the weapons borne by the Iron Men she and the Emperor had slaughtered on Mars than any of the Imperium's weaponry.
But even as the turrets aimed at her, lines of electric blue energy flaring to life on their sides, the Emperor spoke sharply. "Override. Authorisation: Imperator."
The guns paused, the blue glow dimming.
"Double-authorization required for override." The voice said again. "Please confirm."
"Authorization: Imperator," The Emperor repeated. "Register new arrival as an ally, designate Lady Isha. Grant her Alpha-Silver level authorisation."
"Override accepted. Welcome, Lady Isha. Moving to Project Gateway now."
The guns retracted into the ceiling, the holographic display turning back to a light blue as the mag-level's doors slid shut and began descending downwards.
"My apologies," The Emperor said to Isha's raised eyebrow. "The defence systems are designed to only register someone new when I bring them here."
"You have an Artificial Intelligence protecting this…Project Gateway. I thought those were illegal in your Imperium," Isha remarked, folding her arms.
"It isn't a Man of Iron," The Emperor clarified. "It is a techno-organic system built from a combination of cybernetics and human brains," At Isha's expression, he added. "Not a servitor. A vat-grown human brain which I personally designed. It was the prototype for the brains of the Primarchs, in fact. It still isn't as powerful as a true Iron Mind. Certainly not as independent, it's hardcoded with limits. But this project of mine required defences as powerful as I could craft, and this way is substantially less vulnerable to scrapcode or even the Dragon's technology."
A prototype for a Primarch's brain made into the central processor of a defence system?
That was paranoid even by the Emperor's standards.
"Exactly what was this Project Gateway?" Isha asked suspiciously.
"It is best if you see for yourself," The Emperor said firmly. "I will tell you more once you have."
Isha pursed her lips but didn't press, instead leaning against the wall of the mag-lev.
The mag-lev continued to descend into the depths of the mountain, deeper than Isha had ever gone before.
And as they descended, the presence of the wards grew heavier and heavier, the air itself dense with their weight. The Emperor hadn't just sunk the wards into one section of the mountain, they were imbued in the very foundations of the earth.
Isha could have broken them, but even for her, it would have taken a great deal of power. For anyone else…nothing less than the full might of an Exalted Daemon Prince of Chaos would have sufficed, and that only if they were present on Terra.
After several long minutes, the capsule's descent slowed, before it finally stopped.
The doors slid open once more, and Isha and the Emperor stepped out into a hallway, every inch of it covered in a strange golden metal.
"What is this?" Isha asked slowly, placing a hand on the metal. It was psi-reactive, she realized. It reminded her almost of wraithbone.
"This is auramite," The Emperor explained. "It is the result of my attempts to create humanity's version of wraithbone."
Yes, Isha could feel it now. It wasn't as flexible as wraithbone, but this material could absorb or block psychic energy to some degree.
"I have been meaning to make suits of armour for the Custodes from it, in fact," The Emperor continued as they walked down the hallway. "But there just never seemed to be the time."
"I see," Isha said, unsure of what to say. She wasn't surprised that the Emperor had sought to create his version of wraithbone, nor even offended.
But exactly why was this whole place covered in it?
They reached a set of sealed doors that were also made of auramite, flanked by two Custodes clad in jet-black armour instead of gold.
"Your Majesty," They saluted immediately upon seeing him.
"At ease," He said, the doors sliding open at the flick of a wrist from him. No mechanical systems were opening the doors, Isha realized. They could be sealed and opened only by tapping into the enchantments the Emperor had woven over them. "Come, Isha."
Increasingly intrigued and not a little alarmed, the Eldar Goddess followed her human compatriot through the hallways, through several more sets of identical doorways, each of them also warded and guarded by Custodes in black armour.
Finally, after passing through the tenth such doorway they emerged into a massive cavern.
It was not the largest cavern in Bai-heng that Isha had ever seen. The farms the Emperor had made for her were larger, for one.
But it was large, able to comfortably fit the Epona between its wall. More importantly, it was layered in auramite, plates of golden metal covering every inch of the floor, walls and ceiling.
Yet, what drew Isha's eye was the object at the centre of the cavern.
It was a pyramid.
The base of the pyramid was six metres of grey and green metal with whirring mechanisms crackling with electricity. Then upon the base, were four metres of auramite, so different it almost seemed like a different construct from what lay below it. To the sides of the auramite were linked enormous cables thicker than the Emperor and even longer, going all the way to the sides of the cavern.
An enormous, steep staircase carpeted in red led to the top of the pyramid, where there was a throne.
A golden throne, linked to the ceiling by a mass of wires and cables.
There were parts of the machine that lay unfinished, exposed, still under construction, and there Isha recognized elements of non-human technology. There were stolen Eldar artifacts, wraithbone crudely fitted amidst human metals, unfamiliar alien technologies from civilizations that must have arisen after the Edict…
For some reason, the throne sent a thrum of unease through Isha. The whole design was disquietingly familiar in a way she couldn't quite place, something about it that pulled at a memory in her.
But more than that, there was an air of destiny around it, of a future yet to come. Isha could not have said what the future was, what it meant.
She only knew that the throne was important in some way, even beyond the machinery it contained. That it would mean something in the future to come, something terrible and heavy.
To her alarm, the Emperor seemed oblivious. Even though he was a far more skilled seer than she, the Guardian of Mankind didn't seem at all disquieted or wary of the machine, seemingly blind to the threads of fate around it. When he looked at it, all she could see in his eyes his aura and his soul was hope.
"This is the Golden Throne," The Emperor said softly, almost reverently, which only made Isha more uncomfortable. "It is perhaps the greatest of my creations next to the Primarchs."
"What is it?" Isha asked, unsure if she truly wanted to know.
The Emperor turned to look at her, his body and aura completely and deliberately relaxed and open.
"It is a way to open a gateway," He said quietly. "A gateway into the Webway."
Isha was at a loss for words.
She recognized the design now, it dawned on her. It was a Necron Dolmen Gate. Or rather, the Emperor attempting to recreate a Dolmen Gate from his own knowledge, scraps of Necron technology that still lay scattered across the galaxy, and taking things from other civilizations.
It wasn't finished. Even the parts that were complete were hardly a perfect recreation.
But it was close. Terrifyingly close.
It wasn't surprising, exactly. Her children's foolishness had allowed the Ruinous Powers to claim total dominion of the Warp.
And the Warp was the very foundation of most interstellar civilizations. It was how they travelled, how they communicated. As things stood, it was not impossible to do either, but it was very, very difficult. Any empire or civilization that rose in this new age of darkness would be built on shaky foundations.
So of course the Emperor, consummate scientist and ruthless warlord that he was, had turned to the idea of breaching the Webway, of claiming it for his people. He was not the first to have had such an idea, though Isha suspected that he underestimated the difficulty of it…or the consequences of attempting to do so.
This object was something akin to a Necron Dolmen Gate. And yes, those had succeeded in breaching the Webway of the Old Ones, but in the end, they had also shattered it.
In the aftermath of the War in Heaven, her children had slowly, painstakingly built a new Webway over the aeons. Why the Old Ones had taught the Aeldari the secrets of warp tunnelling and making gateways was something Isha could not say. For the most part, the Old Ones had been cold and clinical in their treatment of the Eldar as weapons. Prototype weapons at that, ones not nearly as refined or efficient as their later work such as the Krork.
But they had taught her children how to make pathways through the Warp for some inscrutable reason of their own.
It had been a good thing, in the end. Fragments of the original Webway survived, warp gates scattered across the galaxy here and there, discovered, studied and harnessed by younger races. But it was nothing like the grand network of pocket dimensions and portals that the Old Ones had built before the War in Heaven or the one her children had built for themselves.
But now, even the second Webway lay in peril. It had been damaged by the Fall, of that Isha was certain. The explosion of psychic energy from the Birth of Slaanesh would have had catastrophic consequences.
The Webway had survived, but it was in a fragile state.
And the thing in front of her might be the key to breaking the Webway just as the Dolmen Gates of the Necrons had shattered its predecessor long ago. Or at least to damage it even further.
Even if the Golden Throne did not do serious harm to the Webway's infrastructure, even if it worked exactly as the Emperor hoped…what would happen to all her children within?
Yes, the Webway realms had become dens of debauchery and madness, ruled by some of the worst of her children. But those were just the rulers.
There were so many Eldar in there who were just slaves. Eldar created in cloning vats, looked down on with disdain by the 'Trueborn' elite of the Dominion, who considered them slaves, test subjects and fodder.
What would become of them if the Emperor conquered the Webway and claimed it for his own?
"Isha?" The Emperor - George asked. He seemed almost anxious, clearly fearing her anger or reprimand.
But the Everqueen simply closed her eyes and sighed.
She was not angry. Merely afraid.
And…she did understand what an enormous gesture of trust this was. What it meant for George to have shown her this, was to tell her the truth of what he intended.
To give her a chance to influence his thoughts on the project and what he might do.
She hadn't forgiven him for what had happened to Iyanden. She wasn't sure she ever would.
But here and now, she might be able to save more of her children if she let her anger go than by holding on to it.
Opening her eyes, Isha looked directly into the Emperor's own. She let her aura loose from the usual tight control she kept it under, letting all her emotions show so that he would see that she was not angry.
"We have a lot to discuss," Isha said quietly.