Erebus had left Lucia alone with her thoughts, and she was content with that: there was a lot to process. The creature had resolved to find the way to her body, her anchor to the material world, as it had explained when they first met. It hadn't taken long for them to decide on a course of action. She would remain here, in relative safety, while Erebus expertly navigated the unpredictable Warp currents; it would eventually find its way back to her.

And if not, then she would find her own way, as she had intended from the start.One thing at a time…

Lucia's mind was a knot that she worked to untangle. She thought about Elias Gurlitt and how she had been the one to end his life. She thought about Silas, and how she had done the same. And she thought about James Kraken, and the choice she had made to save him at the expense of all else.

In each case, there had been so much grey, so much risk in the unknowns. What if she hadn't awakened when Silas had attacked her? Would he have killed her that night? Would he have gone on to kill someone else?

Even Dovator, for all his confidence, could not have been certain what would happen if he had let Gurlitt live, or what would befall the people of Mercator after he was gone.

There were no certainties, only choices. Not even right or wrong choices, just choices that needed to be made and lived with, in the same way that Lucia had resolved to live with the consequences of saving Kraken. Were she to do it all over again, she was confident she would make the same sacrifice.

But what if the circumstances were different? It was easy to feel confident when the disastrous outcome on Gaea Prime did not rest squarely on her own shoulders. Dovator, Borglyn, the planetary governor, all of them had made their choices too, and it was the confluence of those choices that had led to the death of that world. What if her choicewasthe critical factor, however? What if the choice trulywasbetween Kraken and dozens of lives? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? Where was the line? Would she be able to let him die? To kill him, if necessary?

The knot tightened.I don't know.

Lucia let out a frustrated sigh. This line of thinking was getting her nowhere. Perhaps it would help to follow a different thread: her convoluted and ever evolving relationship with the Immaterium.

Weiss' question floated to the forefront of her mind: 'Would you be able to hold it like Dovator did?' The question had been nagging her since he had asked it, a constant itch at the back of her mind that she had desperately wanted to scratch. Having relived the events on Mercator, she finally had her answer:Yes, I think I could.

Butwhenhad the change come? What had been the tipping point? That very moment in the vault, when a tsunami of voices had come crashing down, washing away her feeble defenses and shaking her to her very core? The moment she had resolved to enter the Immaterium for Kraken, despite Dovator's warning? Somewhere in between?

Erebus faded into view. The psyker watched it absently, still embroiled in the losing battle with her armada of thoughts.

The creature floated gracefully through the Immaterium, sometimes appearing closer and sometimes further, but always moving toward her. At last, it came to rest in front of her, finally having found its way through the chaotic maze.

"I have found—"

"Why did we just visit Mercator?" Lucia blurted, eyes locked on Erebus' with an intensity that surprised her. "I understand why we visited Glanvill. But why Mercator?"

For the first time since they had met, the creature blinked, its third eyelid flitting across its round, avian eyes.

"You may not have realized it at the time, but the artifact had a lasting impact on your mind and soul. You experienced a presence like you had not previously encountered. Something more sinister than the usual whispers. Something insidious. Ancient. The experience remade you."

Lucia stared at Erebus a moment longer, considering its words. Finally, she sighed and looked away. "I really thought I was ready for it. My defenses were up, just like Dovator taught me. But until the assault came, I really had no idea what I was preparing against. I think… I think as soon as I experienced it, I knew. I knew what I had done wrong, what I was missing. It was too late to correct it, but I learned, and that's what saved me on Gaea Prime."

The psyker allowed herself a small smile.One puzzle solved.

"Perhaps. We shall confirm shortly." Erebus began to drift away again. "Come."

They traveled together, an eternity passing in the blink of an eye as they crossed infinity. And there, at the end of their journey, Lucia's body floated above them.

The psyker looked up at herself, shrouded in the mists of the Immaterium in the same way Dovator had been when they had found him in the past. Lucia, the physical Lucia, appeared to be in her quarters. She lay peacefully in bed, sleeping, to anyone who didn't know any better.Time to wake up.

Lucia floated closer.

"Youmaybe ready now, but once you try, you will not have a second chance. I suggest we keep to our plan and revisit one final moment, when you lost yourself in this place. Strengthened by that experience and the others, you will have the best chance to succeed."

Lucia halted her advance. She turned back to Erebus slowly, hating to take her eyes off her body, off her exit from this nightmare. But she knew she had to. If she only had one shot at this, she couldn't afford to take it before she was fully prepared.

"Right, okay," the psyker sighed, taking one last look at herself. "Take us back to Gaea Prime."

Erebus raised its arms, just as it had twice before. It pulled at the unstable energies of the Warp, weaving them together into the complex tapestry that would become the governor's palace.

And then it stopped.

Erebus whirled around, searching frantically, fear in its usually inquisitive eyes. "I thought we would have more time."

Lucia glanced around too, wide eyes alert for any sign of danger. But nothing seemed to have changed. The Immaterium was the same simmering cauldron it had been since she left the safety of her chrysalis. Energy swirled this way and that, guided by the invisible hand of entropy. "What do you mean? What's happening?"

"It has found us."

"What has?"

Erebus shook its head and pointed to Lucia's body, gently floating in and out of view as if veiled by a thick fog. "You need to go."

"But I'm not ready! You said we still need to—"

A sight behind Erebus stole the psyker's breath along with her words. Lucia had seen it once before. It was the reason she had found herself stranded in the Immaterium, the reason she had been forced to construct her chrysalis.

Hundreds of eyes stared at them. Hundreds more joined, snapping open and turning their gaze upon her and Erebus. More and more followed, an infinite sea of eyes blooming all around them, unblinking and hungry.

In the space between the eyes, countless mouths whispered, tugging at the edges of Lucia's soul, luring her to oblivion with their seductive promises.

"There is no time! Go, Lucia!"

Lucia snapped out of her haze. The eyes and mouths were everywhere, blocking out everything else. They drew closer. And closer. And…There!

The psyker raced toward her body, keenly aware that the distance she perceived meant nothing. Instead, she felt her way forward, navigating the currents as best she could, reaching, stretching.

Lucia looked back.

The mouths had grown larger. They surrounded Erebus now; there was nowhere left for it to run. The eyes that had once been focussed on her had turned their gaze. The creature that had been her guide, had made it possible for her to revisit her past, to send Dovator the message that had brought him to her rescue all those years ago, was now their entire focus. The mouths opened.

"Go!" Erebus shouted again. And then it was gone.

Lucia struggled onward, her soul stretched to its limits. She pushed, pulled, wove over, under, and through, until finally, she was there. She felt the very edges of her soul graze her body, fingertips gaining a tenuous grasp on the cliff's edge.

The eyes had snapped their attention back to her now, boring into her with overwhelming ferocity; the mouths were hungry for more. Waves of laughter sent her reeling, a thousand voices taunting, almost drowning out the thousand more that continued to whisper, beckoning her to give up and submit to the inevitable.

The psyker struggled, trying desperately to shut out the voices, to reach the safety of her body, of the material world. She was so close.

The laughter grew deafening. Lucia screamed in anguish, pulling as hard as she could.

She hurtled forward into darkness.