– The Arena –
Abelard's point of view –
Abelard held Elena tight over his chest and whispered to her, as they emerged from the portal into an open arena :
" Wake up, Lord Captain. Wake up, please. We need you. "
And damn if they needed her.
The arena wasn't just…well…an arena. It was gigantic. They were merely fighting in one small circle, but it held hundreds of them. The tiers were filled with eager drukhari, leaning forward to feed off the pain of the warriors. The ground was slippery with both old and new blood. All around them, people - human people - served as decorations. Some of them had been turned into living furniture, their bodies twisted in an absurd way that set Abelard's mind ablaze with fury. Many others were, more simply, impaled and begging for mercy as a very slow death paralyzed them. A pile of corpses had been set over the edge of the arena - their predecessors.
Abelard would rather not dwell upon what he saw over there, but his eyes kept getting dragged away to the pikes and the corpses. Were there any companions of theirs in that ? He could swear he spotted a trace of von Valancius blue over a corpse, but maybe it was just his mind playing tricks.
Argenta checked her bolter, unflinching. In this place of corruption, she was the only beacon of hope they could turn to. Abelard looked almost pleadingly at her.
" Don't worry, Seneschal. I will keep her safe, " said the Sister bravely, with nothing but utmost certainty in her voice. " I will keep all of you safe. Men ! Get in position and follow me ! "
A first wave of xenos monsters entered on the other side of the circle, skirting around the edges to get at the men. Abelard stayed behind, now slapping Elena's face to get a reaction from her. She barely seemed to notice her change of surroundings at all.
" …I guess today is the day we found out if you were the Interrogator or Heinrix all along" she mumbled again, staring at the shadows.
The first wave of enemies was defeated by Argenta and her formation. A second one came in, this time led by a drukhari tormentor.
Abelard was now shaking Elena.
" Lord Captain. Lord Captain ! It is time to come back to us. We are in danger. "
" Danger ? "Something switched behind Elena's dark eyes and her feline pupils grew, enclosing all of the white in her eyes. " What is the status of the squad soldier ? "
Soldier ? Status ? That was Imperial Guard glossia. Was Elena remembering her time in the Guard ? Abelard hesitated, but decided to play the part.
" We are under attack, specialist Martyr. Half of the squad is down. We need your psychic abilities to make it through. "
Elena had a reaction and stood up suddenly, as if a chord had been pulled from within….and then nothing happened.
Abelard would have screamt from frustration as light drowned out of Elena's face.
The second wave had hit hardest and some soldiers had fallen. Argenta was fighting the drukhari leader by herself. A third wave was coming in - this time on Abelard's side.
He put Elena behind his back. " Stay behind me, Lord Captain. I'll protect you."
He had no certainty at all. His wrinkled hands felt more slippery around the thunder hammer than he remembered. The beast that entered the arena were not like the ones before - they were grotesque aberrations, thrice the size of a man, made out of twisted flesh and bones. It seemed to him that it was made from a man - a giant man that would have been stretched too thin.
Argenta roared with righteous fury as she spotted the incoming enemy, and ordered the soldiers to take care of the last drukhari - jumping at his side, her bolter blazing. Her bullets slowed down the grostesque's approach, and Abelard managed to swing a hit.
His hammer crushed down one heart inside the beast, but sadly it had four more.
He barely parried the next strike of the beast, which sent him flying backwards. Argenta took his place instantly, emptying her barrel inside the grotesque. A blast caught her in the back - the dark lance of the drukhari, who'd dodged the young soldier's attempts at ending his life gracefully.
Argenta did not cry out for Elena's help when she fell down on her knees, shock over her face.
But Abelard did, once more, trying to put all his faith and hope in his call. Elena didn't seem to be able to see what was happening, as if a veil had settled in. She reacted to things and people that weren't even there. He needed to find a narrative, something to make her react through the veil that now separated her from the present reality.
With no idea what it would do, Abelard howled out : " Elena ! The drukhari ; they have Lady Cassia ! Without our Lady Navigator, we are lost to the warp - and Kunrad has won ! We must act and defeat the wretched xenos ! "
His instincts were right. Elena's calm voice piped in from behind them, stern and sharp : " I should have known Lady Tisiphone was using the xenos for her vile plans all along. They will not touch a single hair on her head, I swear ! "
A ray of flames swung by Abelard's shoulders and hit the grotesque, setting it on flames. Abelard stepped back, dragging Argenta with him. The Sister was wincing with pain, but still aware. She reloaded.
Abelard would have been happy with that, merely that - the psychic abilities of Elena seemed to terrorize the drukhari and the grotesque. The flames were spreading, as unnatural winds rose from nowhere. He heard screams from the tiers - and he was suddenly aware that their mediocre fight, which had been barely interesting to the spectators before, was drawing attention.
Abelard now remembered how strongly the drukhari had reacted to Heinrix, Elena and Idira's abilities in their past struggles with them. He felt a sense of unease and fear in him. He wasn't sure that dragging the Master of the Arena's attention was a good thing.
He fell back with the few remaining soldiers, who gasped as they looked at the "witch" they had sheltered in. Elena's posture had totally changed - she wasn't crumpled on herself, mumbling to ghosts anyone. Standing tall and straight, she towered above the humans, her crippled figure ablaze with pristine flames. Fire had replaced her lost arm and engulfed her, but she didn't seem to be in pain at all. In fact, she was smiling.
And singing, Abelard realized.
Something about hide and seek.
"...you hide, I seek ; come play with me…"
Without any warning sign, Elena leapt forward in the center of the stages, and struck the inferno once more. The drukhari retreated, aiming at her with his gun - but she dodged the blast gracefully, with what Abelard recognized as the manifestation of her prescience.
Yet she didn't seem to focus on her present enemies at all.
" TISIPHONE !" she screamed at the top of her lungs, sending a new ray of flames around, that crashed over the shield protecting the tiers from the attacks of the arena. The spectators got back, hissing heinously at the psyker - but reassurer that the shield was holding, protecting them.
" I WILL HAVE YOUR HERETICAL HEAD ON A SPIKE ! YOU SHALL WEEP FIRE, TISIPHONE, FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO CASSIA ! "
Abelard and Argenta huddled together, trying to find someplace to hide as fire erupted everywhere and the cold hands of the warp started clawing inside their minds. One of the soldiers got trapped in the flames and his cries of agony terrorized the other ones.
Argenta had her eyes wide. " What is she talking about ? Has anything happened to Lady Cassia ? She isn't even with us ! "
Abelard shook his head, watching from afar as Elena unleashed her psychic fury over the fighters, killing both humans and drukhari alike in her folly. Whatever she was seeing, it must have been bad.
" Lady Cassia is saved ! " he tried to cry out, as he looked nervously at the flames coming for them. " She is safe ! She's not here ! Tisiphone is not real ! "
His words seemed to pierce through Elena's mind, as she stopped using her powers, panting heavily in the middle of the set. Silence surrounded them as the empyrean fires licked the stage, burning away the dead bodies in an acrid smoke of dust and cinders.
Elena pivoted to look at Abelard and, despite the distance, he heard her mouthed the words :
" The worm is killing me," she said, and her face winced in pain and confusion. She knelt down, recovering a knife on the ground that sizzled on her flesh.
" I feel it behind my eye, Abelard ! Get it out ! GET IT OUT ! " her voice was quaking with fury. Her left hand tightened around the knife and she plunged it inwards to her face -
Argenta leapt back on her feet, quick as a lynx and faster than Abelard. He was barely reaching Elena when the Sister had already put her arms in a tight grip, fighting for the knife.
" I have to get it out ! Get it out ! Argenta please - " screamed Elena, wriggling to get free of Argenta's grip.
Abelard realized with horror that the Lord Captain was trying to stab her own eye over the blade of the knife. She tried to make a gesture with her head, hurling her own face towards the weapon, but Argenta managed to yelp and deviate the trajectory, taking the blow for herself instead. Her nose cracked. He took the weapon and threw it away.
Argenta continued to wrestle with the skeletal Rogue Trader, slowly getting her to cradle into her arms, preventing her from hurting herself.
" Elena, stop it, stop it. You have to fight the heretic thoughts ! Pray to the God-Emperor with me, Elena, as we did in Footfall. You are His chosen ! You cannot fall to madness ! " Argenta's voice was authoritative enough to get Elena to stop howling, and the Sister recited her prayers, purposefully forcing Elena into her grip and embrace. After a while, Elena's muscles relaxed.
" It's killing me. I don't have long. Time is of the essence but the essence is lost to time. In the past a birth was celebrated with an epitaph. A motherless child wandering amongst stars searching for its purpose. Essence is all it is but time sadly it does not possess much more ", whispered Elena.
" What are you talking about ? What is killing you ?" asked Abelard.
" It's in my eye", she repeated once more then fell unconscious.
This time, no amount of trying brought her back.
He looked warily as the drukhari presiding their part of the arena pointed them to a way back through another portal. They had seemingly won something - the right to come back and fight for another day.