– Heinrix's point of view –
– Present –
The Archon's Spire -
A child.
No matter how dangerous and precarious their situation was right now, with Marazai's clone leading them and their flock of frightened humans into the Spire, Heinrix could not focus, could not care.
A child. Elena had been pregnant and had said nothing to him.
His heart was beating painfully into his chest.
He knew, rationally and logically, that there wasn't any child in truth. Elena had spoken about a seed, a fetus, nothing more. She had been distant talking about it.
He could not be distant. To him, it wasn't a mere seed. It was the prospect of life, of a dream he would not have dare to admit was his own until now.
A child.
That changed things considerably. So much that his head kept spinning, his vision blurring.
The child of two psykers: biomancer and diviner. A fetus tucked away in an artificial womb on a sentient ship, guarded from the horrors of the warp by an unidentified mechanical entity.
The heresy of this idea was enough to make him feel nauseous.
But then…
There was also…
How do you call it?
Hope.
Painful, painful hope.
It felt like someone had taken a hammer to his skull and cracked it open, and now he could see far and wide behind the box he'd been impassively thinking in.
The Inquisition…the Imperium…Calcazar…the Rogue Trader…
They were shadow and mirrors, revealed for what they truly were: an impotent grasp at a power struggle. Now he understood. Now he saw. None was bearer of the greater good. While pretending to defend their realms, they kept killing and destabilizing and things went to shit all the time.
But it had to stop! It had to!
Because now Heinrix knew he was…yes…he was a father. A father to an idea, a possibility.
It changed everything.
Elena strode on ahead, leading them into the Spire. Her flesh was still raw and red, even with all his use of biomancy. Absent-mindedly, he noticed how her exceptionally tall frame was just a little bit more stern, a little bit more imposing, her chin held up high in cold defiance of the dangers of the Spire.
Was she right? Did the Cult of the Final Dawn really span out a plan involving multidimensional schemes, culminating in Tzeentch manipulating their stories from the beginning? Was there another Heinrix out there, walking the streets of Commorragh with the Rogue Trader? What would he be like in this other reflection? Would he be brave ? Would he stick to the Imperial credo? Would he falter and doubt ?
Would he love the Rogue Trader or hate them ?
Elena, with her revelations, had finally snapped the chord within him. He was both free of all that had pre-determined him, and also utterly mad at her. He could neither forgive her nor stop loving her.
He hoped that, if he truly had other versions of himself playing their own little stories for the curiosity of the Ruinous Powers, that his other selves were brighter than him and would keep away from the von Valancius's heir.
Still.
A child.
Elena was a killer, a savior, a madwoman, a visionary, a hero and a villain all at once. And she was also a mother. A thought he did not manage to encompass.
"Are you all right, Master van Calox?"
That soft voice was Argenta's. Forcing himself out of his swirling thoughts, Heinrix addressed a faint smile at the Sister. She'd also been shaken by all that had happened.
"I…" I'm perfectly fine, he wanted to say but he could not lie. He could not lie about himself anymore. "Everything I thought I knew has been shattered down and I don't know what to think anymore", he said flatly.
Argenta's eyelids fluttered in surprise. He was expecting her to offer him her resolve, her fiery and unquestionable faith, but instead her voice cracked.
"Then you and I both", she said. "Still we must place our faith in Him, and pray His light will guide us to our right path in the end."
"Do you still have hope?" he asked. He was surprised at his own question. Never before would he have asked a Sister of Battle something so…bleak and weak!
Argenta briefly touched his shoulder, a spark in her dark eyes.
"Master van Calox, hope is just the name for one getting on their knees and praying desperately. I know all about hope. "
Heinrix snorted at that, and briefly touched his heart.
A child. A plan. Faith. Isn't that all we need to fight ?
" Then I think, Sister, that somehow, I still have hope. "
"As long as this is the case, brother of faith, then we are not lost."
Argenta smiled and there was a warm comfort in this.
– Elena's point of view –
Inside her mind there was rage and sorrow, hammered down and battered down into a ball. Anger was never a good friend but it kept her going. She was unstoppable because she was angry all the time.
She was angry at the drukharis for all the suffering they'd been putting humans and Aeldaris under. They were creatures of nightmares, with no shred of decency about them ; they fed on the pain of others and, in order to be satiated, had developed heights and delicacies of pain that had Elena weeping internally.
She could not walk through the Dark City unscathed. Her soul was torn apart by the misery she'd witnessed. All this…madness.
She wanted to exterminate every last one of them. Her eyes kept going to Marazai's clone, cold daggers inside her brain. She hated and despised him. She hated every one of them.
She was angry at Calcazar for manipulating her like a puppet all along. She was angry at Lady Maria for doing exactly the same. She had been a child when Maria took her in and the woman had stirred every aspect of her need for validation, her desire to be loved, to turn her into a weapon. And Elena had served.
Her desperate need for being loved had made her weak, compliant. She had compromised herself. No more. Dog days are over.
She was angry at the Inquisition for doing the same to Heinrix, for twisting his mind until he wouldn't know himself.
She was angry at herself for hiding so much from him. Now he would hate her. But at least he knew.
"Elantach, they are here," whispered Yrliet, walking by her side.
She was talking about the captured Farseers.
Elena ordered Abelard and Ulfar to stay behind with the refugees. The rest of the retinue climbed down a platform and reached another laboratory. Tervantias's, most probably.
Yrliet's face closed as they neared the first experiment. A grotesque creature was whimpering on a table, its hands and legs cuffed.
Heinrix came up to the creature, and frowned. "It reminds me of what they did to the humans in Kiava Gamma," he whispered.
Pasqal leant forward, examining the creature. " This reminiscence is correct. This creature is made out of six xenos Farseers, stitched and bound together into another living creature. Hypothesis: considering the taste for pain of the drukharis, all six of them remain sentient and alive. Hypothesis: the so-called Fleshmaster was trying to extract information off them, but failed. He could have logically presume that mixing their minds together might offset them. Hypothesis : all of our xeno's craftworld brethren are now either dead or mad. I suggest we put an end to this…heresy. "
Yrliet gasped and closed her eyes, her members trembling. " Farseers…is that true ?"
She moved forward, looking for soulstones over the creatures.
A strangled, feminine voice came out from the side of the creature. They spoke in Aeldari. Without her Elucidator, Elena couldn't make out what they were saying. Yrliet spoke briefly with it, and then took a knife from her belt and stabbed the creature numerous times, until it laid lifelessly on the stone.
"Leave me," she said somberly. "I have failed. I am…too late."
The retinue said nothing. None of them were inherently inclined to show empathy towards an Aeldari. Elena tried to take a step forward, but Yrliet raised her hand up to gesture for her to stop.
" No, elantach. " Tears shone in her emerald eyes. " This time there is nothing to save…"
" You are wrong, xeno. "
Every one of them stopped.
That voice…
" Achilleas! " gasped Heinrix, turning around with agitation.
" I am here, Master van Calox. "
…they knew that voice. But it also sounded different. Ratched. As if every breath was taken with difficulty and every word pronounced with concentration.
Heinrix immediately abandoned Yrliet and the corpse of the Farseer, searching the cages in the room. A hulking, dark shadow moved, stepping away from him and the light of his torch. It whimpered in the dark.
" Please don't look at me !" it howled in desperation.
"Achilleas, I cannot believe you are there and…" Heinrix swore and grabbed the bars of the cage, frost forming around him as he called on the powers of the Empyrean. With inhuman strength, he tore the bars away from the cage and threw the door at his feet, panting heavily.
" Thank the God-Emperor you are alive. It must be a sign", Heinrix added, almost feverishly.
Another whimper. The dark shape inside the cage reluctantly got up to his feet, and Heinrix's expression changed.
Slowly, the creature stepped forward, but didn't exit the cage. The light revealed the distorted shape of a wrack with a human face.
"I dare not speak His name on my foul tongue," Achilleas replied, trembling. He casted a worried look at Marazai's clone, who stood reactionless and with a distant look on his face.
"You!"hissed Yrliet. " He was the one who dealt with the drukhari behind your back, elantach, and the reason I have been able to make contact with Marazai in the first place. I should have killed you on Dargonus. "
The apparition tried to laugh but ended up barking. " It would have been a kinder fate to me than I deserve. But no more ! I do not wish to speak with you, xeno. "
" Is it true ?" Heinrix pressed on, wrinkles creasing his forehead. " What are you doing here, Achilleas ? "
The wrack hung down his head in shame. " It is. "
Achilleas told them how Marazai, when he invaded Dargonus, made sure of his compliance by ample abuse and torture. After Yrliet uncovered him, Achilleas agreed to help her contact the drukhari in exchange for information concerning her Craftworld. After they were gone, Achilleas fled Dargonus in embarrassment and sought to be captured, to try to reach out to them. Marazai had welcome his pet back and leave him in the hands of Tervantias - that he survived was astonishing, but his will and mind had broken.
Heinrix stared ahead, gloomy.
Elena sighed. " Achilleas, why ? Why did you let yourself be captured ? I do not understand. "
The wrack whimpered again, and, after a while, replied :
"I realized I… craved the pain. I thought I came for you…to try to make up for my betrayal…but it wasn't true. I went in the arms of my abuser because that was the only way I could feel normal after all that happened. "
" Kae'Moragh", cursed Yrliet under her breath, shaking her head. But there was no real anger in her voice.
Heinrix turned away sharply, holding his head. " I cannot bear this", he sighed.
"Wait ! There is something I must tell you. The Farseers…" the wrack turned his head towards Yrliet, panting with anguish. " The drukhari could not break them all. One of them survived. I can show you. "
Yrliet's fist closed nervously and she casted a glance at Elena. Heinrix inhaled sharply.
"Achilleas," said Elena. " You need not end your life in darkness." She stepped forward and placed a careful hand over his cheek. The wrack recoiled and his hooded eyes were cast down. " In all lifeforms there is His light within. Come back with us and save your soul. "
Achilleas turned to look at Heinrix.
The severe man let out a sigh, pinching his nose's bridge.
"You have betrayed the Imperium", he said flatly. " But you may have a chance at finding meaning in death. Help us fight our way out, Achilleas, and I will grant you a merciful death, and make sure your family is looked after. "
"I cannot ask for more. I will do as you say", replied Achilleas.
The wrack walked slowly, uneasy in his distorted body. He led them to twisting pathways until they entered another part of the laboratory. Littered experiments went on and on and on. They quickly fell into silence and tried to ignore the shapes of the things trapped into the Haemonculus's vats.
True to his words, there was another Farseer here - living, struggling inside some sort of artificial tank. Yrliet got him out quickly.
Despite his wounds, the stately Aeldari got up and squared his shoulders, scrutinizing them with a keen gaze.
"A mon-keigh and an Outcast have found their ways into the Dark City to save what little remains. The universe is full of cruel surprises, but this is an outcome I managed to see. "
"A simple "Greetings, Rogue Trader." could have sufficed as a salute," grumbled Abelard.
Yrliet and the Farseer Eklendyl fell into a heated conversation, as the Aeldari they rescued revealed that Theodora was the one to strike the Craftworld. Pasqal nodded approvingly: the technological prowess was endearing and he began to understand what kind of research was connected to Nomos onboard the flagship.
Ultimately, the Farseer asked for their help reaching the Gateway and promised to open it for them. Despite her annoyance at her brethren's haughtiness and at their inability to stir Crudarach away from harm, Yrliet stood at the side of the Aeldari, helping him climb up the stairs.
"Just a moment", asked Heinrix.
Elena stopped, and turned. " Yes ?"
" If the xenos can operate the Gateway on his own, does it mean that we still have use of him?"
He was pointing to Marazai's clone. Despite his lack of intelligence, the clone must have sensed the threat and he reached for his blades, eyeing the Interrogator warily.
A heavy hand stopped him from taking his daggers.
" If I were you, xenos, I would not even think about it," growled Ulfar, his smile showing pointed teeth.
Elena pressed her lips together and nodded. " Do with him as you please. Throne knows we've all been raring to smash his head. I do not care about this copy. "
Heinrix unseathed his blade and decapitated the clone on the spot, with a quick and clean blow. The strike was far too swift, too strong for a human ; his eyes took on a shimmering and unnatural hue.
Achilleas let out a strangled sound. Was it satisfaction or fear?Elena didn't know. The wrack leant over the headless body with trepidation.
Abelard glanced as the head of the drukhari smashed against the far-end wall.
"Impressive, young man," the Seneschal commented.
There was a hint of worry in his tone.
The psyker sheathed his blade impassively. There was no satisfaction in his eyes.
Without the clone, maneuvering the Spire proved more difficult.
Still, they went on ahead, climbing up and up. The refugees followed them with difficulty, Argenta and Abelard having to help them out regularly.
Elena felt a cold breeze over her cheeks. She pressed her left hand to her face, pensive.
"Did you feel that ?" she asked Heinrix.
The Interrogator had fallen into a stubborn mutism ever since executing Marazai and their previous discussion. He glanced at her, his eyes narrowing, and nodded.
" The warp. It's…leaking," he commented.
"Hopefully for us all, it is not", corrected Eklendyl. Despite his heavy breathing, the Aeldari composed himself and spoke like a renowned teacher having to educate deficient children. " The Dark City is located inside the Empyrean and is shielded by numerous machines. The Craftworlders also use technology to prevent the Immaterial from sensing our presence. "
Yrliet sighed with nostalgia. "Humans", she said, taking great care of not saying monkeighs aloud, "do not master this art, Farseer. I have had the misfortune of experiencing their…navigational techniques. "
"A most miserable experience, I do not doubt it, but I see you have stayed true to your Path and have not been caught in Sai'lantressh's gaze." Eklendyl turned to them once more and indicated a strange mechanism.
The artifact was part of the Spire, molded into it so naturally that they may have very well missed it otherwise, if not for its threatening energy.
Elena's eyes widened as a sense of déjà-vu occurred to her.
"This is it!" she said excitedly. "The rift of destruction that brings down the Archon! "
At least, something to sink her teeth into! She stepped forward, analyzing the mechanism.
Eklendyl urged Yrliet to propel him forward, and he said sternly:
" Yes, this machinery, if it was destroyed, could very well lead to the emergence of a Breach. Daemons would invade the Dark City, killing drukharis by the hundreds and feasting on their souls. By doing so, though, you would only play along with Tervantias's plans of destabilizing the balance of power in Commorragh : I would urge you to think about it carefully," he said.
Yrliet narrowed her green eyes, scurrying at Elena's expressions. " Elantach, you cannot be seriously thinking about it. Unleashing the Empyrean in here…we would be targeted as well ! You would only empower one enemy! "
Heinrix started to laugh maniacally, with no hint of warmth or amusement at all. "The irony of it," he sniggered. "We have a chance at opening a breach in the heart of our enemies' bastion. I didn't think anything in this damned place could make me glad, but I was mistaken. "
Pasqal poked at the machinery with one of his mechadendrites. " It would be interesting to study this stifler device longer. "
Eklendyl scoffed and closed his eyes, cursing in his language. " It is absurd to trust a mon-keigh not to let anger and vengeance guide their heart. I shall speak no more. Outcast, you have chosen poor company", he complained.
Yrliet stepped to face Elena, ignoring Eklendyl. Heinrix eyed them both on the other side while Pasqal kept contemplating the intricacies of the machine.
"Elena, I beg you. Do not go through with this…madness. Do not let the cold claws of dirge grip your heart. You are not like this, " she pleaded.
"Am I not ?" asked Elena, her voice echoing Yrliet's words with hollowness. " You are mistaken, Yrliet. I have always been like this. Now, all of you, leave me. Go up these stairs and don't look back. "
" Surely not!"
Elena turned around, eyeing her protesting retinue and their cohorte of refugees with a strangely calm expression.
Her eyes were gleaming with inner fire. She opened up her only arm and a musical laugh escaped her lips.
"Leave me, I ordered, and I shall be obeyed. Am I not your leader ? Now leave me, and witness my vengeance as we unleash nightmares on those that defiled humanity. Today you shall be avenged. Today they shall weep. "
A swirl of unnatural energy made their hair flow in inexistant winds, their coats and capes flapping in the air.
Something in her expression must have scared them off. Ulfar whistled under his breath and Argenta made a religious sign. Even Heinrix finally relented. He grabbed her hand on the way out, and softly kissed her fingers before going away.
"Whatever you have to do, Elena, I have your back. Always", he said, before exiting the room.
Abelard stayed behind, the last one of them all.
"Has my Seneschal gone deaf ? " said Elena with annoyance.
The old man smirked.
" You may impress the others all you want, Lord-Captain, but I have served in the navy and I have served Theodora. I will not move from here and you know I am a man of my word. Whatever happens, a Seneschal's place in the face of danger is at his Lord-Captain's side. "
Elena sighed and conceded this one. She presumed that somewhere in the universe, there was a big imperial dictionary, and under the entry "inexorably" one could find the stern face of Abelard Werserian staring back at them with a disapproving look.
She pivoted to face the mechanism, calling on her psykana to feel the wicked and vile energy leaking from it.
She closed her eyes, forcing herself to breathe slowly, and let herself fall into the black pit of her mind.
" What is inside you?
If I cut you open, from head to toe ?"
Kunrad materialized himself in the periphery of her attention. His greyish hair was disheveled, falling in a stranded lock over his disfigured face. His four eyes blinked with feverish delight.
He sprang towards her, like a devil out of the box, singing incoherently :
" Some have hearts, some have souls, some have faith;
Some have nothing but hateful wraiths;
What's inside you, what's inside you,
If I cut you out from head to toe? "
As he sang, Kunrad plunged a clawed finger inside Elena's ribcage, and dragged it down her stomach with a strangled laugh.
I have invited you in my mind, brother of mine, Elena thought to herself. Now I bear the consequences.
She grabbed his hand and pressed it hard, leaning into the strange lullaby.
" What's inside you, what's inside you,
If I cut you through and through
What's the hiss, what's the catch, what's the snatch
Where does your slithering truth go to hatch ? " continued Kunrad, seemingly exalted.
" Go away, Kunrad," snapped Elena, trying to focus on her psykana.
But her concentration wasn't enough to make him disappear. Was he a remnant of the foul worm Marazai put inside her brain ? Or was he really Kunrad, communicating with her via unknown means ? Or maybe the warning of her failing sanity as she sank more and more into forbidden realms of the mind ?
"Answer the question! Sing the song! " he hissed. " I'll help you open the rift, sister. I'll be your dagger and your cloak." The idea seemed to amuse him greatly and he giggled to himself.
In her mind, she focused towards the machine. She imagined the fire engulfing her, like a sacred cloak of flames, melting down the xenos metal and its structure. She felt the tingling of cinders over her lips as she smacked them nervously, the Empyrean enshrouding her.
But it wasn't enough.
She called on her pain, her suffering, her emotions so inhibited.
Come, anger, she thought. Come, sadness. Be my arms, be my swords, be my eyes.
In her mind she opened her arms, calling forth the eidetic memories of long gone times.
And despite herself, she found herself humming along :
" Some say it's fear, some say it's light,
That makes your spark go loud and bright.
But I do know, I do know,
Nothing of the sort is making you glow.
What's inside you, truly you,
The ore of fire you try to eschew,
Is a messed up fistful of rage
Unraveling on the stage. "
Kunrad chuckled and, linking his fingers to her, directed their hand at the machine. A ray of fire, crackling with unnatural energy, engulfed the machine.
" Remember," continued Kunrad, " remember everything that has ever made you angry. "
The time the statue cried.
Her dad.
The Black Ship.
The dog's figurine she stole.
Lady Maria.
All the other psykers she met.
Those she killed.
The oneiro-experiment.
The morgue and its memories.
Losing Orlon.
Through clenching teeth and sheer will, Elena moved, laying the force of her resolve over the mechanism.
Rykad Minoris's fate, and the consequences of her own choices.
Her dispute with Heinrix.
The Anvers.
Vistenza Vyatt.
The multiple assassination attempts.
Muaran's stubborness.
Argenta trying to kill Idira.
Heinrix arguing with her decisions.
Achilleas.
The old Black Ship and its daemons.
Losing her dog.
Losing her people to the drukhari.
Calligos provoking her.
Chorda trying to steal from her.
Calcazar.
Idira's strange vision, and her words from another time : " all life is born of an accident, yet yours is entwined to where one's tomb lay"
Her secrets.
Her loneliness.
Heinrix leaving her.
The cage.
The cages.
Ceaseless, meaningless pain.
It all could be different!
Finding strength in her memories, Elena felt her psykana growing in power, until suddenly something snapped.
Like a threat that had been cut down.
A sense of resistance, perhaps, disappeared, and she fell to her knees, disoriented.
In the distance, things began to scream with delight.
" Lord-Captain!"
Abelard was shaking her shoulders. Elena blinked. She was still in the same room than before, and the mechanism laid, fuming and melted, on the ground. The nearby environment was twisted, still burning. The waves of the Empyrean washed over her and for a second she dug her nails inside Abelard's arm as one would to prevent from drowning.
The second passed and the waves flew around her, preserving the isle of her soul. She relaxed - only slightly.
The old man pressed her to get up on her feet and so she did.
" It is done, Abelard," she said with a radiant face.
Something neither humane nor drukhari screamed somewhere in the depths of the Spire. Echoes of distant battles could be heard through the walls of the Spire.
The Seneschal considered her serene and otherworldly expression. " We should go. The fire…it's spreading. The mechanism caused an explosion of some sort in the Spire…I think this stifler wasn't the only one to break. "
" The retinue," whispered Elena urgently. " They must have reached the top of the Spire. Let us run!"
"Lord-Captain…" began Abelard, while trying to follow after the youngest woman's swift steps. "Call me crazy, but…I think I heard Kunrad's voice for a moment…did you also hear it?"
Elena's heart skipped. Was Kunrad real?
" Sadly, I did, Abelard. How strange, don't you think ? "
At the top of the Spire, a fight had broken out between the Archon Yremeryss and her retinue. Some of the refugees she had saved from Tervantias's cages lay dead, killed by the drukhari's servant. Behind the fearsome Archon's back stood the Gateway - the one that would bring them back to realspace.
All around them, fire had broken out and the air felt hot and taxing when breathing.
As Elena and Abelard ran towards the fight, Ulfar majestically cut down one foe with a formidable blow of his chainsword. His howling covered the battlefield, inspiring awe in their hearts. At his back, Argenta, visibly wounded, was spraying down Yremeryss with her bolter. Pasqal, Yrliet and Eklendyl, stranded away from the Archon, were holding down the line, preventing two grotesque figures from attacking the sheltered refugees.
Yremeryss didn't even spot Elena and Abelard. Achilleas and Heinrix fought her side by side. The clumsy blows of the Wrack were easy to dodge for the evasive drukhari, but kept her busy while Heinrix, floating in psykana energy, cried out sanctifying blessings, his blade burning bright with holy energy.
Elena leapt around the fire and seized the pistol the strange Harlequin had given her. She felt clumsy with her only arm, far from the vicious killer she'd been. The weapon was heavy and rusty, it seemed, but it made her feel alive.
Abelard took up positions as they ambushed the shambling figures of the grotesque from the back. Their diversion worked long enough for Yrliet to succeed a deadly shot, killing both of them in one go. Pasqal's mechadendrites greeted their return with trepidation.
The smoke burnt their lungs as they inhaled.
Dancing in the middle of the battlefield like a daemon, Yremeryss had evaded Achilleas's reach and pushed Argenta towards the edge of the Spire. Ulfar sprang over the Archon, roaring, trying to crush her with his massive size ; the elusive drukhari jumped on the side with a contempt smirk and cut down the Space Wolf. Such was her strength that the blade cut through the armor, leaving a gash of blood and a very surprised Ulfar.
Yremeryss pivoted on herself, and, unstoppable, leapt towards Argenta. She grabbed her arm and a struggle ensued ; the drukhari headbutted the Sister mercilessly, her spiked armor and crown injecting toxins into the Sister. Argenta's bolter fell to the ground just as the Sister tipped over the edge of the spire and -
" NO ! " cried Elena.
the foreboding evaporated, leaving the Rogue Trader with a dreadful sense of premonition. Yremeryss cut through Ulfar's armor and pivoted on herself, unstoppable and -
Abelard and Elena interfered, throwing themselves between Yremeryss and Argenta. The Archon's blade quickly bypassed Elena's weakened defenses, slashing her sides in a flash of red pain. It was then met by Abelard's steady thunderhammer, blocking the upcoming blow.
The fires seemed closer now. Pasqal and Yrliet had recoiled from their cover. Eklendyl was breathing with difficulty.
Elena had to make a conscious effort not to fall over the ground. It will pass, she thought to herself. The frustration of having lost an arm unnerved her. She couldn't fight like this !
Heinrix came back into the fray, his eyes glowing bright with psykana. In a clean blow, he slashed through the Archon's limb. Her arm fell off. Yremeryss's screams turned into a maniacal laughter. She danced around Heinrix and hit him under the chin. He barely dodged the next blow.
Argenta's bullets missed the dancing drukhari, crashing into the ground.
"By the Throne!" cursed Abelard. " She's as slippery as a jewel inside Footfall's sewage! No offense intended, Lord-Captain," he added quickly.
Elena aimed clumsily and missed her shot, feeling the frustration grew. " Fine !" she hissed. "I guess we're gonna see if mind rules over matter. I wish we had Idira with us. "
Another clean shot from Yrliet. This time, it landed and Yremeryss temporarily lost her superb and swiftness, staggering from the wound.
Achilleas launched himself over the drukhari, taking the opportunity to strike. Under the weight of the Wrack, the drukhari fell down. In his embrace, Yremeryss could not get to her sword. She resorted to stabbing him with the twisted barbed spikes covering her gloved hands. Achilleas howled in pain but didn't let go, crushing the lithe drukhari beneath his monstrous form.
As the Archon was hissing on the ground like a feral wildcat, Ulfar raised his massive leg and crushed down her head with all the weight of his armor and body. Something cracked and snapped with a most horrid sound and a strangled voice turned silent.
Argenta coughed, staggering into the smokes. " The captives!" she said. The Sister ran into the smokes, gesturing for the survivors to join them. The refugees gathered around them, scared and frightened.
The fires were close enough now to feel their fiery bite over their skin. From the streets, they could hear the cries and echoes of battles. A sort of vessel was crashing down onto another spire in the distance.
Eklendyl needed not be told what to do. Helped by Yrliet, he leant over the Gateway and manipulated a strange set of runes.
A blue shimmer illuminated the faces of the retinue and the refugees. The soft light hurt Elena's eyes. She put her hand over her forehead.
The Gateway was opened.
In its basking blue light, like ripples playing over the ocean, Elena realized how they looked nothing like the persons they were before Marazai abducted them.
Commoragh had changed them and wherever the Gateway would lead, neither Elena nor her retinue would emerge the same as before.
— Present —
– Janus –
Jae was stamping her foot impatiently, trying to compose for herself a mask of control by pretending to examine her fingernails.
At her feet, a large lacerax rolled over his back, his puffy paws clawing the air into whatever hunting dream he was having.
"Stop that," whispered Cassia, pushing a lock of white hair behind her ear. " Your colors are giving me a headache."
" Oh, yeah? " snapped Jae. "What is giving me headaches is that we're stuck on this stupid planet once more ! If Xue learns we're having a chat with the Aeldaris she'd been hunting down - well, I don't want the Inquisition on our asses. "
Emelina Iona Liochteart chuckled softly at that. She put down a hand over Jae's shoulders in comfort briefly.
" Worry not, Jae. I have made sure that Xue is busy pursuing another lead far away from us at this moment," she said.
Jae relaxed somewhat. "Sure you did, my dazzling angel of twilight. Still, one is never too careful, eh ?"
Behind their backs, Cassia rolled her eyes in annoyance and leant forward her charted maps and compass, working on some complicated task. At her side, a servitor made out of auramite, with an androgynous and unusually slender figure, was helping her with her calculations.
Suddenly the jungle was illuminated by a blue light.
Jae's lacerax opened its lazy eyes curiously.
" Is that…" began Jae.
Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the tall shape of Muaran emerged from the forests.
" It is time. Your quary has come home", he said.
" At last," sighed Cassia happily, a smile forming on her pink lips.