Journeys – Part 1

I WILL REND THIS WORLD IN TWO ONCE I AM FREE! I'LL FEED EVERY LIVING THING ON THIS PLANET TO AN ARMY OF DAEMONS! I'LL- No! NO!

Ahsael let out a wail of horror and sorrow that sounded very much like a baby crying as the mortal child, a young hive dweller named Selene, held him up in her arms and spun him about her, making strange noises with her mouth.

"What are you doing?" Cory asked, amused at her child's antics.

"He's a bird!" Selene said. "Like the ones from the stories!"

"Ah," Cory said, nodding. "I don't think Calba quite likes being a bird, he cries every time you do it."

I AM NOT CRYING, MORTAL FOOL! AND I AM AHSAEL, LORD OF THE GALLOW'S EYE, NOT CALBA!

Selene mercifully came to a stop, holding the young baby up, who was barely able to do more than shake his tiny fists in impotent, if endless fury.

"Sorry, Calba," Selene said meekly, though she never lost her smile. "Can you forgive me?"

NEVER!

"He forgives me!" Selene said, squeezing Ahsael into a hug. He tried to escape, tried to rip her arms off of him, but his tiny limbs were incapable of such a thing. "Look, look, he's hugging me!"

"Mhm," Cory said with a smile. "Anyways, shouldn't you be going now? I think its starting."

"Oh, right!" Selene said with a happy smile. She held up Calba to her mother. "Can he come too?"

"Hm, I don't know…" Cory seemed reluctant, but her daughter's pleading eyes wore her down. "Oh, alright. But if he starts crying, you come right home, ok?"

"Ok!" Selene said gleefully.

"And walk!" Cory reminded her. "Don't want to fall over with him in your arms, do you?"

FREE ME! I DEMAND YOU FREE ME!

"Got it!" Selene said, making sure she had a good hold on a still-writhing Ahsael before stepping out the door, the wooden frame which looked like it had grown into place rather than been crafted swinging open as she stepped into the corridor. The ceiling and walls had grown thick with vines, nearly a solid layer. Gleaming red fruits hung in abundance and the walls were covered in a myriad of flowers of many colors that somehow grew in spite of the conditions. Small insects buzzed, flitting or crawling, their backs flashing with light. The floor was covered in vines as well, but these ones were wider, flatter, and harder, almost like a tiled floor.

Ahsael went still at the sight. He was in a hive city, that much had been clear to him for a while now. He could guess which one and he suspected this was the heart of the Malum Entity's power. Which likely meant, given its shapeshifting abilities, that every living thing in this corridor save himself was a part of that Entity, possibly including the child who carried him, though he had doubts about that. After it had blocked his powers, if not stripped them entirely from him, he'd thought he was going to die as it inflicted torture upon him. However, even the pain his soul had suffered was nothing like this.

Selene skipped down the corridor, carrying the enraged sorcerer infant along with her, the motion causing his detestable new body to feel nauseous.

"You're gonna love this, Calba," Selene said as they reached the end of the corridor, which opened up into a larger chamber which had around thirty others, mainly the children from the hab block. Attached to the wall, at the base of which a red-robed Tech-Priest was currently fiddling with some kind of system, was a large, black screen roughly as wide as a man was tall and half that in height. It was a display screen, Ahsael recognized, similar to the kind that might be found in a command center. But, why would children use such a-?

The display flashed to life into a grey screen and a cheer went up among the mortals as the tech-priest stepped back from her work, revealing some kind of control console connected to the wall. The tech-priest surprisingly lacked any visible signs of augmentation and he doubted someone in this den would have had access to the more advanced kinds that were indistinguishable to eyes from natural flesh. Her robe was also unusual, being quite simple for even a lower member of the Cult Mechanicus, with the only detail being silver trim along the edges and the Cog Mechanicum infested with vines.

"You all ready?" She asked with a pleasant smile. The children, including Selene, cheered and quickly found their seats on a number of odd-looking cushions that had been laid out on the ground. Selene crossed her legs, resting a struggling Ahsael on her lap. Her hands took hold of his wrists and he suffered the indignity of having his arms waved about like some raving cultist.

"Watch, Calba," Selene whispered to him as the room dimmed. He paused in his struggles, looking around wearily. He normally had nothing to fear of the dark, as even in this low light his Astartes eyes would have allowed him to see clearly, but these eyes were horrible even in normal light. If something snuck towards him, he would have no chance of seeing it, let alone once the display flashed once more, changing its shape.

Ahsael heard some kind of squeaking coming from the display's speakers, like a chittering laugh, and the screen faded into the scene of a field covered in patches of grass, the blue sky cluttered with clouds. The children 'ooh-ed' and 'ah-ed', most likely never having seen the sky before. The squeaking was gone, replaced by the whisper of the wind and the sound of scratching. Like a sinkhole opening, a small gap in the dirt fell away and a white-furred rat poked its head out, green eyes flashing as it looked around. It was the same rat that had been looking down at him when he'd first been placed in this ridiculous body, Ahsael realized with a fresh burst of rage.

He was going to scream in anger and rage, something which he was sure would ruin whatever… this was for the mortal children and would no doubt bring him delight, but when he went to breathe in a – small – lungful of air, he instead found himself yawning.

No, not now!

Ahsael's head thudded back against Selene, whose eyes were fixed on the display screen as the rat had some kind of adventure. Ahsael barely noticed as exhaustion suddenly had him in its grip. He tried to stretch his frail limbs out, to get his blood pumping, but that turned out to be counterproductive.

Not… now…

Ahsael's eyelids were heavier than admantium, and he was soon fast asleep, snoozing gently.