** Author's Note : Dear readers, if you're still there,

Thanks a lot for waiting on me and sorry for the delay ! I have been a bit busy lately and had to take a break from writing.
As a result, it has been a bit hard to come back to Tapestry of Fate...but I really want to reach the conclusion of the story.

Sorry for bumping all my plot points in the same chapter : originally, I wanted to build up to them more slowly, but I do think this fic needs to come to an end.

4 to 5 chapters left :) **

– Present –

Commoragh -

Heinrix's point of view –

Heinrix breathed in, breathed out. Paused. Reflected. Was surprised at his own thoughts, part of them logic, part of them passion, swirling in a daze together. He always thought of himself as ice but knew deep down he had fire within. Now the fire was vibrant, engulfing him, confusing him.

He gazed down at his hands. His skin had a yellowish tint, but otherwise the cuts and burns had faded away. None could see what the drukharis had done to him, in the same way that all scars he ever had were gone.. His plasticity was astonishing, he reflected.

His steps took him to the place where Elena had retreated to rest before they were taken once more to the Arena. The captives they had set free roamed the whole Pit, but still they kept at bay from her in awe and fear. She was the crippled woman who had set them free. A legend in the making. A saint in their eyes. They dared not disturb her. Some of them had gathered a few offerings to her.

Where do we go from here ?

After all Elena had said and done.

After all the secrets that they had laid bare.

Argenta's confession. Abelard's confusion. Idira's death. Yrliet's betrayal. Ulfar's laugh exposing them all for who they truly were. The Solitaire's enigmatic dance. Marazai, or his copy's, dangerous game.. Pasqal's secrets.

Heinrix's lies.

And what of she ?

The woman that had led them here, by her own volition.

Heinrix closed his eyes.

What had first struck him about Elena was her dark, intense eyes. The sharpness and heaviness of her looks, as if she was looking at something inside of him. He had remained a fortress to her, hidden his secrets with the tricks of years of experience in the Inquisition. Yet with her he felt a fraud of himself. One day her inquisitive eyes would pierce through his fake flesh and truly see him.

The second thing that he had noticed about Elena was the color of her lips. For a long time he had wondered how it would feel to taste them. Their pale, rosewood complexion had intrigued him. So delicate in a woman that could be so harsh at times.

Heinrix did not fall in love at first sight. He hadn't lost his mind over her. He could not remember a moment that defined their relationship, a time he could point at and claim : "that is when I started desiring her, cherishing her."

He could not remember because something like that surely could not happen, not to him, not to Elena, who was so much alike him.

But things with Elena kept happening that couldn't have been.

When he was with her, he had the sense that they had always been together. Even before they were born, their souls surely belonged together. Long after they are dead, they would still be bound. Lady von Valancius was a gravitational force, pulling him across times and spaces with the force of inexorability.

Could he cut free of her ? Could he forget her perfume, her hair, her voice ? Could he stop being annoyed at her stubbornness, at her undue sense of heroism ? Could he stop caring for her safety, her happiness ? Could he stop being mad at her recklessness ? Could he go without the way her lips pressed severely together whenever he told her something that annoyed her ?

Was he doomed to hold affection for a woman who would, in all clarity of mind, drag him to Commoragh ?

He could never do something like that to her. If the roles were reversed, never would he have thrown her to the drukhari's hands.

He knew of only one person whose mind was cold enough to pull such a tricky move : Calcazar himself.

In truth, they were more alike than was comfortable for him to think about.

" You have always been too sentimental for your own good, Heinrix".

How do we go from here ?

Elena sat against the wall, her eyes closed. Her eyelids fluttered unnaturally. Small spasms constricted her features. He felt the Veil tugging around her shape like a cloth being threaded.

" Elena", he called softly.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. His heart sunk in his chest.

He remembered her long blonde hair brushing against the back of his hand as he held her close and waltzed in her office, on Dargonus. Oh, to dance again once more, with no care in the world !

She indicated the spot near her and Heinrix sat into the ground at her side.

He was tired beyond words.

He rested the back of his head against the wall.

" We should talk", he said.

" Naturally," she replied.

The Interrogator pressed him forward : How long has she known ? Can you be certain she is not consorting with the drukhari ?

The psyker inside him felt exhilarated. Could her power be used for his own gain ? What else could she see from their future ?

Heinrix didn't know what to say.

" Why ? " he said.

" In my vision, I saw that we could do good in the Dark City by striking the Archon down and tearing part of her realm apart. I thought it was a feat worth suffering for. "

Heinrix shook his head. " And you chose us, and not Cassia and Jae, because you thought we would survive. "

" Yes. I knew you wouldn't die. I knew you would endure. "

Heinrix pressed his lips together. Elena didn't look down.

" Endure," he repeated coldly. " You know one of the things I realized while the drukhari tortured me ? It is that their display of ingeniosity wasn't even the worst thing I went through. No, in fact, I had experienced more painful torture at the very hands of humanity. What I hadn't expected was that you, whom I trusted, would contribute to that in some way. "

This time, she looked down.

He was angry. He had controlled himself during the retinue's bickering but now he was confused and angry and he could not stop it.

His voice remained calm and crips. Hollow, perhaps.

" Sometimes you say you care for me, sometimes you use me just as any other authority in my life, despite your facade of benevolentia. What am I to you truly then ? A puppet to play with ? Is our relationship just a game to you ?"

She gasped softly, like a hurt animal.

" No. No, it isn't ! I just...couldn't see any other way. So many versions of this story…and yet some parts of it stay the same. I didn't know how to break free from that. "

With her only left hand, she made a vague gesture, seemingly encompassing the whole place.

Heinrix was confused. He leant forward, examining her. " What do you mean ? "

" I mean we were meant to be here. The reflections converge and in our joint fates, some events are like checkpoints and knots I cannot untie nor see through. Are you familiar with the expression " life will flash before your eyes when you die" ? Heinrix, it is wrong. There is more to us than just one life. We are legion. The Empyrean... distorts and projects parts of these reflections. Every possibility…every variation of ourselves, of our choices. They exist somewhere. That's where forebodings and sixth senses come from. But never before have I seen, have I felt something so big than this. "

He looked inside those dark gleaming eyes, illuminated by some sort of inner fire he didn't have access to. A sense of melancholy passed through him.

She is crazy.

All diviners are.

" Nothing can be written with such certainty", he said. Something in him refused to believe the ridiculous idea that Commoragh was part of his destiny. That all he had endured was written somewhere. It made things…meaningless.

She pressed her lips together in a gesture of annoyance. " You are so stubborn. On Kiava Gamma, you wanted to pierce the secrets of the cogitator cursed by Tzeentch in the hope of guessing at the future. I am no corrupted cogitator, Heinrix, but I am good at what I've been trained all my life to do, so why won't you believe me ? I told you, I couldn't see any other way. In the dozens of reflections I've spent weeks studying, we always ended up here. All I could do was try to discern a way to keep us alive and succeed in the end. "

" In what end ?" Heinrix asked.

Elena pondered his question. " You know what ? I had wondered a long time if I should tell you all this. About my forebodings concerning the Dark City. About what's coming after that." She pressed her head back on the wall. He heard her soft breathing.

" But I kept thinking", she continued, " ' Heinrix is the right arm of Calcazar. How can you be sure to trust him ? What does he truly know ? Will he keep your secrets safe or will he report them to the Inquisition ? Will he be used against you ? Is he lying to you ? ' And then I thought, I could not tell you anything. "

Heinrix's heart tightened painfully, but he remained calm.

She was absolutely right, of course.

He would have reported anything of interest to his mentor.

" But after what we've been through here…I do not know anymore. It's like the rules have been bent and broken. They make no sense anymore." Elena paused. " In realspace, Calcazar, Theodora's legacy, Winterscale and Chordia are still there. Once we've escaped this hell - and we will escape, I promise - then the rules apply to us once more. But I can't bring myself to care anymore. I want to trust you, Heinrix. I want you to trust me. I want to tell you everything. In the end, I want to be with you. "

She took his hands slowly, almost shyfully, eyeing him for his agreement. Their fingers interlaced. He felt numb and cold inside. He could hear, through his sense of biomancy, her heart racing in her chest, like a wounded bird trying to take flight.

" I was not completely honest. I chose you to accompany me in Commorragh…" she looked down. " …because I didn't think I could survive this place by myself. I needed to know you were there because I trusted you to anchor me. To be a reason to fight. You are my reason to fight. Protecting you, protecting my people is my reason to fight. "

Heinrix's throat tightened at Elena's words. Her voice, like a cool river in a dark cave, was soothing on his mind and soul. Elena was a killer, a warrior, a soldier. Of course love, in her eyes, would come wearing the metaphor of a battlefield.

He took her bruised fingers and slowly kissed them.

" Ah, Elena…" he sighed. " I apologize for second-guessing you - but your safety is the motive of all my actions. I cannot pretend to know your mind and sometimes I feel I'll never understand you. But still I won't give up and I do not wish for you to give in. I'll gladly be your reason to fight, your sword and shield, your will in the battlefield and your comfort at night. Calcazar…the Cult…I do not care anymore. To the void with it all ! We could die at any time. To be with you is all I want. "

He leant forward and planted a soft kiss on the side of her face. After a second of hesitation, she replied, her heat melting his inside from within. He held her firm, feeling like a drowning man catching the line to survival. His kiss grew hungry.

He reluctantly turned his face away, inhaling deeply.

" But you need to really know me," he added. " You were right, Elena. I haven't been totally forthright with you. There are things I haven't told you. "

" Your job with Calcazar."

" My job with Calcazar. " He salivated uneasily.

" Let me tell you what I truly know," he said.

– Heinrix's secrets –

As you very well know, I am the right arm of the Lord Inquisitor. I know much more than what I've been allowed to tell you. But my situation was acquired relatively recently ; and in Calcazar's coterie's hierarchy, I am not his favorite nor the most ancient of his acolytes.

Tanakia had always been the person he trusted the most. It was why he had her infiltrate Lady Theodora's retinue years ago. Tanakia was a good agent, an exceptional spy, and she learned things about Theodora and her endeavors.

You have to understand, Theodora was an upstart Rogue Trader in the Koronus Expanse, but her protectorate was quite small and insignificant compared to those of Winterscale and Chordia. She was obsessed with the idea of power. She knew her position was precarious. Hence, she started exploring further and further, pushing her crew and ship to the limits.

From what Tanakia gathered, her exploration led Theodora to unknown spaces of the Expanse, where she uncovered vast planets containing unknown xenos technologies. That is when she grew closer to Magos Armanat, who became her main counselor. Together, they studied these forbidden tech, Armanat out of curiosity, and Theodora out of ambition.

They found something called "Epitaph". From what we understood, Epitaph was a sort of xeno being encaptured in heretek. Soon after that, Armanat began to have…doubts about his collaboration with Theodora. He flew away from her and hid his knowledge. It was one of the reason I was sent to the Cenobium : to follow Armanat's steps and find him. In a way, having Pasqal in your retinue was a good way for me to accomplish my mission without attracting his attention.

I am not privy to every decision Calcazar made during this time. Most of it had been dealt with Tanakia. However, it is clear that Calcazar used what he learnt, not to punish Theodora for her dangerous and heretical behavior, but to subdue and use her as he would. I have often wondered why hadn't he executed her, as the dogma dictates. But I think deep down I have always known that Calcazar was a radical. Whatever the content of the thing called Epitaph, he deemed it worth every sacrifice.

Officially, I am not supposed to know about any of this. But Calcazar had me interrogate a kidnapped Tech-Priest. She was called Axiomantha Haneuman. I…interrogated her, quite at length. Calcazar wanted her knowledge. And so I did. Axiomantha resisted all classical interrogators Calcazar sent her, and breaking her will was a challenge even to me.

When she finally broke, she taught me all these things and gave the Inquisition her methods. Axiomantha had been connected to Armanat somehow - as all Haneumans seem to be. Her data memories had been extracted and entrusted to the care of Brasswhisper.

Eufrates II became a playground for Calcazar and Brasswhisper. They coerced the inhabitants to work for them on some grand project.

You probably do wonder how the Cult of the Final Dawn is fitting in all this.

The Cult had always been dormant in the Expanse, but grew considerably these last five years. Neither Calcazar nor I could say why exactly. In the absence of any member of the Ordo Malleus, and considering my psychic abilities, Calcazar often sent me to wipe out their insurrections, trying to find someone big enough in the cult's hierarchy to find answers.

On such a mission, I encountered their first attempt at creating a tool to decipher the future. I am unsure of the reason behind their obsession for this…but the cogitator on Kiava Gamma wasn't their first try. Calcazar…wanted me to study the cursed artifact, and so I did. That way I…let a piece of corruption into my soul. I learnt very little. The artifact only showed me incomprehensible things, crazy things. I dared not look at it for too long in fear I would grow mad. I only gathered from it that Rykad Minoris was an important part of the Cult's schemes, and thus Calcazar decided to send me there - and that is how we met.

However, the artifact left something on me : a scar, a brand. I used my biomancy to hide it - but I suspect its corrupted powers are still visible for those that carry the stench of the Ruinous Powers on their souls.

As for my mission on Kiava Gamma…in fact, the planet had fallen into heresy for a long time and you had nothing to do with it. As I understand, Calcazar ordered Theodora to direct the production towards whatever project he was building on Eufrates II. To achieve her results, Theodora let Chaos take hold on the planet., with Calcazar's tacit endorsement. One of my secondary goals was to erase all proof of Calcazar's involvement in this, otherwise his…radical views would have been exposed. Which was the reason why I had been so entranced with the cogitator : I kept wondering if the cultists somehow learnt something about Eufrates II, about Epipath, and I knew my duty to Calcazar was to make sure they hadn't.

But you prevented me from delving too much into the cogitator's content and I could not be certain what exactly the cultists knew. Their cursed machine…was way more potent than their previous attempts. I fear that the arrival of the Word Bearers and the schemes of Kunrad Voigtvir have strongly empowered them.

One thing is for sure : the Cult is going to learn about Eufrates II one way or another. Maybe they have been planning for this all along. I do not know what has beckoned so much to Theodora's and Calcazar's ambition, but it must be of capital importance, considering the length Calcazar have gone to to protect it.

One last thing. This woman who remembered me on Kiava Gamma…she was part of the people I had rescued from the Cult on a previous mission. I was ordered to deliver the men and women I rescued to Kiava Gamma, where they could work. I have been wondering ever since if the brand imprinted on me by the Cult is enough for them to trace me ? By saving this woman and her kind, did I play into some bigger scheme and help bring the Cult to Kiava Gamma's secrets ?...

Maybe there is more to the Cult of the Final Dawn than the Word Bearers. Can it be that they benefit from the attention of a powerful envoy of the Ruinous Powers ? But then, what is their plan and how does it conflict with Calcazar ?

There. I have told you all I know, Elena.

Whatever happens, if we survive Commorragh, then our next step must be Eufrates.

I do not know what Calcazar's plans are, but the reason beyond everything that happened to Theodora and yourself is there. If you are right and fate truly exists, then yours stems from whatever is there.

– Elena's secret –

My secrets are simpler and yet so hard to interpret. They are visions that came to me of the possible future ahead. I have been blessed with oneiromancy since birth. It is a dangerous ability, often present in the mutated bloodlines of the voidsborn. Under Lady Maria's tutelage, I was as much taught to use my psychic powers than experimented on. Thus my powers have developed past mere precognitions into something bigger, until one day I spend more time in dreams than awake.

In my dreams, I see the jails of the Inquisition. As Incendia Chordia leads me to my trial, a triumphant smile over her bloody lips, I see Xavier Calcazar loom over me. Then I wonder : where is Heinrix ? Where has he gone ? Ulfar frees me from my cage.

I dream of walking through endless jungles and I am saving a man who is drowning in a pool of blood. The sun is setting down over the canopies and every shadow is inhabited by doors opening on a maze.

Theodora's ghost roams the ship, lost in between translations. She is both dead and saved inside the lens. Sometimes she's alive on her ship and she takes my place and she takes Cassia away from here.

Time becomes of the essence.

We give chase but to whom I can't say.

Back on Kiava Gamma once more, or another mechanical world, I have come to defeat Uralon but it is too late for that. Without Cassia's help we cannot reach him in time. Uralon mocks us as the whole planet shivers. Then I hear you in my voxline - you fight with Uralon, you are the only one able to kill him, but Chaos corrupts you and I know I lose you either way. You sacrifice yourself to save us.

Jae runs away with someone I give her to care for. The clock is ticking out. I am more and more alone.

Yrliet and Abelard are with me at the end. Only three of us ; we needed so much more. Why wasn't I able to save more of you ? What did I miss ? By losing each one of you I lose my chance to change things.

At the end of the story, I walk on Rykad Minoris and it is a daemon world. In the ancient Cenobium, Kunrad greets me with a smile.

There is some kind of enormous machine behind him and he says it's too bad I took the reactor away, but he found another way. As I look upon it I understand that he recreated the cogitator of Kiava Gamma on a much bigger scale, fueled by the billions of souls living in Rykad Minoris. They are doomed to fuel this unholy cogitator which computes everything. It is a bridge reaching through dimensions, and each time I choose to ignore your advice on Rykad Minoris it grows stronger for the souls it captures. The Expanse is doomed to fall prey to Chaos.

I kill Kunrad and try to dismantle the machine. I stand at the edge of this broken world and I understand. Without Pasqal I cannot do anything. Without my ship it's all over. This Chaos tech is far beyond my abilities to destroy. I am stranded on a lost world with the dead I have lost.

That is one of the reflections I saw. I think it was mine. Ours. Our spin of the story. How it was supposed to end. Not a happy one, eh ? Of course I wouldn't get the happy ending. I'm not the type for it.

And then I think…looking at all those other reflections…

Maybe there's someone in there luckier than me. Smarter, quicker. Someone who keeps all of you alive.

I may be losing here, but I am no quitter. My goal becomes clear to me : I can use all I know to reach out to the other dimensions, to help them change things and steer their path in the direction that would make them win.

We face a power far beyond our limited understanding, something that threads the tapestries of our fates. None of us can kill it. But maybe we can cheat. Maybe we can disrupt it. Power distorts reality, making its frontiers fade. Then I can speak to the reflections, give them the power to save themselves. It takes only one to break the spell.

That is the way I win.

By changing the rules of the game.

And for that, - I know you're not gonna like that - but I need Kunrad. He is the last key, the one who started it all and the mind behind the Cult, albeit a mad one.

This is what I've been planning on Dargonus for weeks. Diviners, we're like that. If you truly hold a spark of affection for me…then I am sad to say I cannot be any other way. My mind cannot be contained in a bodily shell.

There is something else…I could not tell you before, though it is important…and I fear you may hate me for not telling you right away.

I hid something from you on Dargonus. Something important. I learnt I was pregnant there…Idira told me, actually, through one of her divinations.

Before setting off to Commorragh, knowing what could happen, I went to the ship's medbay and had the fetus extracted and put in an artificial womb…where I knew it would be safe, guarded by Jae, Cassia and…well…I suppose I should tell you as well. The thing on Epitaph…a part of it is onboard the ship. No, it would be wrong to put it like that, it is part of the ship. It was born of my blood, when Kunrad forced me to activate the door to the Warrant of Trade. It awakened this…mixture of xenotech, this shard of Epitaph. They call themselves Nomos.

The fetus is barely evolved at all, merely a seed…I know I should not have been so sentimental, but I could not bear the thought of losing it. I trust Nomos to help it grow. With any luck…it could become a child…

There. I've said it all. Kunrad, Rykad, Nomos, the child, our mutual downfall…

Epitaph, Calcazar, Theodora, Eufrates II…

How do we go from here ?