Lucia's soul floated in solitude, chaotic currents carrying her through the Immaterium, a rudderless vessel whose course had been left to the whims of fate.

She was shrouded in the darkness of her chrysalis, hidden away from those terrible eyes that still haunted her. She could hear the muted sounds of the raging storms outside, the gibbering voices of countless Warp spawn an ever-present undertone. They were all still out there somewhere, biding their time, waiting for her to show herself once more. The thought alone made her shudder.

"Hello, Lucia. It's Sara again. I can't stay long today, but I wanted to come and pray for you again. I hope that's okay."

Lucia smiled. Sara didn't visit as often as the others, but more often than she would have expected. The two women had known each other only a short while and hadn't exactly had the time to form a close bond. That the other woman was out there right now, supporting her in her own way, meant a lot. She would have to tell Sara as much when she got out of here.

All of Sara's visits were, unsurprisingly, religious in nature: she would pray for Lucia's immortal soul, either reading scriptures from the parchment that adorned her body or, sometimes, the psyker suspected, making up the words on her own.

At first, Lucia had viewed the visits as a welcome distraction to the monotony, something that she desperately needed to stay sane in this place. She had barely listened to the words spoken, instead finding solace in the warmth of a friendly voice. When she finally did listen, it didn't take long before the psyker not only appreciated the prayers, but felt comforted and strengthened by them.If prayers give my soul strength, doesn't that mean they really work?

There was one in particular, a short one, that Sara had recited a few times. Lucia loved hearing it and, as luck would have it, that was exactly the prayer Sara had chosen today:

"God-Emperor, guard and keep the soul of your faithful servant, Lucia. Protect her on her dangerous journey, that she may overcome the daemon and the damned. Help her to find her way back to Your Light."

The psyker closed her eyes. A sense of serenity washed over her, and she imagined herself rising up and out of this place, past the whispers and the screams and the eyes, back to the comfort and safety of her waiting body. She could see herself surrounded by her friends, the horrors she had experienced in the Warp chased away like a bad dream in the light of day.

"Stay strong, Lucia. Come back to us soon, if you can."

I can.Lucia stood tall and took several deep breaths, feeling her courage grow with every inhale.I can. And I will.With one more deep breath, the psyker reached out to the walls of her shelter—her prison—and pulled.

At first, nothing seemed to change. She was still surrounded by darkness, the sounds of the Immaterium muted and distant. Lucia couldn't be sure, but it seemed the darkness wasn't quite as dark as she remembered, the sounds not quite as muted.

She continued to pull. A narrow seam appeared, widening bit by bit as she brought all of her will to bear. The seam became a small gap. Lucia's eyes widened.

Through the opening, the inferno she had been so desperate to escape still raged on, a maddening kaleidoscope of raw emotion that shook her to her very core. The howling tempest crashed over her, deafening. A chorus of screaming voices, tortured and tormenting, reverberated through her chrysalis.

Lucia's fledgling courage was extinguished in an instant, ripped from her heart and carried away, a leaf in a hurricane. She slammed the opening shut and slumped to her knees.

I can't.

How long had it been since her attempted escape? Lucia tried to guess, but she knew it was no use. Years of experience had taught her that days in the material world could pass in what felt like a matter of minutes in the Immaterium. But, just as likely, what felt like an eternity here could have taken place within the blink of an eye.

Whatever the amount of time, Lucia desperately needed a friendly voice, a reminder that there was still hope, that she wasn't lost yet.

"Hey, Lucia. Me again."

Weiss!

Lucia leapt to her feet, grinning.

She had learned on one of his earlier visits that he had not escaped the disaster of Gaea Prime unscathed: he had risked his life to save Dovator from the Bloodthirster that she had birthed, and lost an arm and an eye for his heroism. Weiss had taken it surprisingly well, despite being forced to amend his personal motto: 'I can fix the machine even if Iamthe machine.' Lucia admired his tenacity.If I had even a fraction of his strength, I'd have been out of here by now.

The tech adept usually filled their time together regaling her with what he had learned about his new augmentations: how theyreallyworked, what maintenance was required to keep them in impeccable condition, customizations he had implemented, or planned to implement.

Lucia's favourite was that he had discovered how to tune the visual spectrum of his bionic eye to detect infrared, ultraviolet, and even some frequencies of radiation outside that range. How Weiss' brain interpreted those images piqued her interest. He had tried to explain what it was that he was seeing, but the more he talked, the more obvious it became that words just didn't do it justice.

The psyker wondered whether he would have been able to detect anything during the waking nightmares she had experienced on Gaea Prime; the Warp was a realm of pure energy after all, and if her visions had been caused by some of that energy leaking into the material world, then perhaps his new eye could see it too. She would have to ask him about that once she got out of this place. Knowing him as well as she did, she was certain he'd be up for the experiment.

What interesting facts do you have to share today?

"You remember that mission we went on a few years back? Where we had to recover that boot? I was thinking about it today."

Lucia frowned. It had been about a year before Dovator had recruited Kraken, and three before Sara. The Inquisitor had taken her and Weiss to Mercator, a planet in the Trail of Saint Evisser, a tract of frontier space on the western edge of the Segmentum Solar. Their objective was a Chaos artifact that Dovator had been trying to track down for months.

Unlike many of the worlds in the Trail, Mercator still had a strong religious slant, bordering on fanatical mysticism. It was no surprise, then, that such a dangerous artifact had found its way into the hands of a prominent collector of antiquities, masquerading as a relic from some long forgotten ancient pilgrimage.

He's wondering what that artifact might look like with his new eye…

"Such a small, unassuming thing. Wild, the kind of power hiding inside of it… Reminds me of you." Weiss chuckled.

"I remember you froze up when you tried to touch it. The aura it was giving off really messed with you. I wonder if you'd feel the same way now, after everything that's happened? Would you be able to hold it like Dovator did?"

He sighed.

"Anyway, that's all I wanted to tell you. I'm not feeling particularly chatty today, so I'll just sit with you a bit. Hope that's okay."

Despite Weiss' seemingly limitless enthusiasm and positivity, it was clear to Lucia that his strength had wavered today. His voice, even his laughter, was uncharacteristically subdued, flat. And she had certainly never known him as one to reminisce: Weiss was always looking forward, eyes fixed on whatever was on the horizon. She missed his usual warmth and excitement. She hoped he was okay.

"Climb," Dovator reminded her, the same way he did at the end of each one of his visits. "Feel your way back. You need to find your physical self and climb. Good luck, Lucia."

As with his advice to go deeper, advice which had undeniably saved her immortal soul, Dovator's new advice often came with explanation and elaboration that the psyker hadn't quite been able to internalize. But that didn't matter: the Inquisitor had a knack for evocative, pithy statements, and Lucia had gotten pretty good at making the most of them.The hardest part is starting…

Before his first visit, Lucia had been certain Dovator hated her for her decision on Gaea Prime. She had used her psychic abilities at a very dangerous time, despite the Inquisitor's admonition. Granted, she was certain neither of them had anticipated the daemon, and that his warning had been wholly out of concern for her own safety. But even so,shewas the one that had tipped the fragile balance. It washerexplosive outpouring of raw emotional energy that had finally torn open the veil between realms. Intentional or not,shewas directly responsible for all that followed, including, and perhaps especially, the Inquisitor's unavoidable decree of Exterminatus upon his home world.

But there was never any hint of malice or judgement in the Inquisitor's tone when he had come to visit; only kindness and concern had been there from the very first.

Dovator's visits tended to be short and infrequent, unsurprising given the nature of his work and the unimaginable burden it must place on his soul. Despite that, he always used the time to give advice and encourage Lucia on her journey, hoping that she would find the strength to quit this nightmare and return to her friends.

I wish I could…

Lucia was certain that at least a month had now passed since the death of Gaea Prime. And still, she played out the scenario in her mind over and over again. The Earthshaker Cannon firing. Kraken standing there, defenseless in the middle of that field of death. Her reaching out, fighting her way through the Warp to shield him from the blast. The eyes. The voices. The darkness.

When she considered only Kraken, there was no guilt, no regret. She would gladly sacrifice herself for him a million times over. But was one man worth the cost of an entire world?Depends on the world, depends on the man.

You can try and justify it, but it was a terrible trade and one you should never have made, she had chastised herself countless times.You weren't thinking about the Imperium, you were thinking about yourself. And a whole planet died for it.She wasn't convinced.

Sometimes, Lucia wondered if Kraken would have done the same for her, had the situation been reversed. She knew he cared for her, but would he have weighed the risks differently? Would he have been able to let her go? Whatever his decision, Lucia was certain it wouldn't have been an easy one for him, either. And she also knew that, if he was stuck in here and she was out there, she would want to do whatever she could to bring him back.He must be so frustrated…Lucia thought sometimes.No amount of firepower is going to get me out of this place.

"Sorry I haven't been to visit in a while."

Kraken!Lucia beamed with joy.Where have you been?

"Dovator sent me to quell another cult and it took longer than I expected. It felt… strange… doing one of those without you."

Lucia listened intently as Kraken filled her in on all the details: how he had tracked them down, their numbers and weaponry, which Chaos god he suspected as the puppet master. It had been an exciting mission, with a few close calls that were likely embellished for effect. She wished she had been there to help him.

When he finished, there was a silence, always different somehow from that which followed the visits from the others. Comforting. Lucia imagined him sitting by her bedside, holding her hand. She was fairly confident that he often spent the night, and was thankful for it. His very presence gave her soul the boost it needed to survive another day in this awful place.

Lucia sat in that comfortable silence for what felt like hours, arms wrapped tightly around her knees. She thought of Kraken, of Dovator, Weiss, and Sara. They all missed her and wanted her back; she wanted tobeback. The only thing standing in the way of that was her.

I'm done with this place. Today is the day I leave.

Lucia closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. She listened carefully. The winds outside her chrysalis had grown calmer, gales where once there had been hurricanes. When she opened her eyes again, she felt a determination stronger than on her previous attempt. She exhaled slowly and climbed to her feet.

"Alright. Time to go." Lucia spoke the words out loud, hoping that hearing the sound of her own voice would boost her confidence further. She was pleasantly surprised by the unwavering, steely tone that she had mustered. She was ready. She could do this. She—

"Can I help?"

Lucia's heart hammered in her chest. Her eyes darted around in confusion, and she listened carefully. The voice hadn't come to her over the winds of the Warp, the way her friends' voices always did.That sounded… nearby. Almost…

"Behind you."