As the Epona entered the Warp, the Emperor focused. He opened his mind's eye and looked straight into the Sea of Souls, far more clearly and deeply than any mortal psyker could, or should.
He could see the Ruinous Powers, four great storms of frothing insanity, competing with each other for power in an endless war. He could see the infinite horrors that now ruled the Immaterium, from the most meagre spirit to the greatest of the Daemon Princes.
But his enemies were not all he saw. Colours that did not exist in the Materium flashed through his mind. He could feel the flames of a thousand stars, and the ores of a million meteorites. He could feel the people of Sol, the Selenar gene-cults on Luna, the Mechanicum and their machine spirits, the war witches of Venus, the aliens who had conquered Jupiter's moons, the alien pirates on Saturn and the monsters who had transformed Sedna into a war machine.
However, none of them were the Emperor's concern at the moment. They would have his attention later. For now, he focused on reaching his son.
Navigators had to carefully chart a course through the storm of the Warp, choosing the safest current to carry their ship to their destination. Even before the Age of Strife, the Immaterium had been as wild and perilous as any ocean, and Navigators had to choose which routes and currents to take carefully.
Not so for the Guardian of Mankind. His power curled around the ship as a cloak of golden fire, an inferno of power that burned through the endless nightmares and armies of daemons, a thousand times more effective than the ship's Gellar Field.
The Epona cut through the Warp on an arrow straight path, straight towards the world that the Emperor could see in his mind's eye, so close and yet so far.
Cthonia.
It was a world that stank of human suffering and greed, the planet destroyed by cruel exploitation and the people left to suffer and die amidst the ruins.
He could sense the countless mortals living in the damaged hive cities, the machine spirits of the Mechanicum expedition, the Star Hunters and...his son.
Not even the Four could conceal his son from his sight, not when the boy was so close, and the Emperor knew where he was. The Primarch's soul, which Revelation had so painstakingly crafted for decades, shone like a bright beacon, calling out to its creator. It was the Sixteenth, the Emperor realized, the soul which he had crafted to be his greatest general, to be both conqueror and liberator, bringing worlds into the Imperium through both force of arms and diplomacy.
And it was untainted, to the Emperor's relief. Clean and pure and shining, without a trace of taint on it.
Be careful, he reminded himself. Chaos had hidden things from him before, and even now he did not know how they had breached his wards to open a warp portal within his laboratory.
His son might seem untainted and pure, but Revelation could not know for certain until he found the boy and examined him.
And, a small part of him pointed out, he should probably let Isha examine the boy too.
His gaze flickered to the Eldar warp-construct, still in her human guise, who was leaning against the wall, her body taut with tension, in stark contrast to her earlier eagerness. She was afraid, the Emperor realized, and why wouldn't she be? He could feel the burning gazes of the Four upon the ship, especially Nurgle and Slaanesh.
Well, probably best to distract her…and tackle the subject of the boy as well.
"Captain Alexandros, continue your work. I need to speak to Lady Isha privately. Isha, come."
"Yes, Your Majesty," The captain said, saluting sharply.
Isha said nothing, her face still looking unusually strained, but she nodded sharply and followed him as he left the bridge of the ship and made his way to his chambers, Shield-Captain Juno following behind both of them.
Several minutes of terse silence followed, the Emperor still dividing his attention between guiding the ship and thinking about Horus, until they arrived at his private chambers. The chambers were large and expansive, including an office, several bedrooms and a meeting room for entertaining diplomats. He briefly considered the office, but ultimately decided to move to the meeting room instead, Isha beside him as Juno stayed to guard the door outside.
Walking into the meeting room, the Emperor was faintly pleased to note that the chambers had been arranged according to his liking, with plush red carpets and walls, handcrafted wooden furniture with plush golden cushions.
"Sit," He told Isha, waving a hand at the sofas arranged around a table. Isha raised an eyebrow, but said nothing as she sat, watching as he strode over to the wine cabinet and pulled out a bottle of mead, pouring them both a drink.
It was pointless, of course, neither of them could become intoxicated and were both fully capable of both conjuring and cooking food far beyond what any normal humans could make, but the Emperor struggled to find the words to explain his dilemma to Isha, and this was an excuse to not speak to her, no matter how flimsy.
Isha took the offered glass, and drank from it, idly dissecting the taste and ingredients of the beverage.
Fermented honey, water and raspberry, all wrapped together with just a hint of spice, with roughly 16% of the drink being alcohol. It was a pleasant beverage, and Isha drank more as she waited for the Emperor to speak. Many of her children would have sneered at it, but Isha could also sense the love and passion that had gone into making this beverage, almost a century ago by a humble woman and her daughter as the former taught the latter her craft. It was buried beneath the echo of the arrogance and greed of the noble family that owned the vineyard where the beverage had been made and had hoarded the bottle in their cellars until gifting it to the Emperor some years ago, but it was there.
The Emperor's unusual show of hesitation was...odd. She had never seen him like this, visibly mustering the will to tell her something he didn't want to talk about. Even after their time working together, she would have expected him to send her to her chambers and approach her when he was ready, not allow her to see even this small display of vulnerability.
Strange, but not unwelcome.
But it would be nice if the Emperor could begin to speak soon. It would make for a decent distraction from the daemons hammering against the ship's wards.
After several long moments, the Emperor finally spoke. "I am worried for my son."
Isha blinked, genuinely taken aback by the admission. Not the fact that he was worried, she did not think even the Emperor was so cold, but the fact that he was admitting it to her.
"I cannot be certain of what kind of state he, or for that matter, any of my other children, will be in," The Emperor continued. "Chaos may have corrupted and mutated him, perhaps a daemon may be possessing him...any number of horrors are possible, and they have clouded my sight so heavily that I do not know what has happened to my son," He visibly hesitated at the next few words before forcing them out. "Your help with purifying and healing my son, if necessary, would be deeply appreciated."
So that's what he was so nervous about! Honestly, did he expect her to refuse? Say that she would not help an innocent child?
"You will have my help, of course," Isha assured him, placing her now empty glass on the table. "I will do everything in my power to help your son."
The Emperor nodded, looking visibly relieved. "Thank you,"
Isha simply inclined her head in response, choosing not to press seeing how difficult it had been for him to say the words. The Emperor seemed to consider something, his expression shifting from worry to something more thoughtful, before he spoke again.
"Truth be told, concern for my children is why I wish to move as swiftly as possible. The faster I have conquered Terra and began to expand outwards, the faster I will find my sons. That is why I wish to increase the production of the Legiones Astartes with cloning, though it is not a permanent measure."
And they were back to normal. Isha suppressed a sigh, though at least he was telling the truth, even if he was using it to manipulate her.
But she understood. For her own children, she would and had done far worse.
She was still not willing to make any clone soldiers for him, however. But...perhaps there was something else she could do for him. Something that would earn her a few concessions as well.
Isha wondered what to offer him, her mind spinning through the possibilities faster than any mortal could conceive. She could improve his soldiers even more, of course, but even if he were amenable to giving her greater influence over their design, there was only so far genetic modification could go while still keeping his soldiers human. She had already given all medicines and crops that he might find useful.
Isha could help with infrastructure, easily crafting forest cities and bio-technology such as trees designed to serve as energy reactors and grids, but that would likely be making the Imperium too reliant on her work for the Emperor's tastes.
Wraithbone? ...No. She did not think it would be useless to him as she initially had, he could no doubt do something with it, but that made it too valuable a bargaining chip to give up so soon, at least not unless she gained something equally valuable in exchange. As much as she sympathised with the Emperor, she had her own children to think of.
So what would help the Emperor accelerate his plans, then?
And then the idea struck her. The Navigators. In recent years, as she had been granted more and more freedom and knowledge of Terra and its people, Isha had learned from Astarte of a breed of genetically altered human psychics, who could peer into the Aethyr and were employed to help navigate ships. There were several clans of them, and the Emperor had been making efforts to bring them into the fold, though it was still a work in progress.
Isha was certain she could recreate and improve whatever genetic alterations had been made to the Navigators, which would help the Emperor a great deal. He had no need of Navigators personally, but he did need them to guide the fleet he was building. And improved Navigators would no doubt be a boon. Isha might even be able to help teach them techniques that would improve their abilities beyond her genetic enhancements. Her children had developed warp-navigation techniques of their own, in that all too brief time her children had explored the stars on their own before the Old Ones had decided to use them as weapons. And being the mother of the Goddess of Foresight meant you did pick up a few tricks along the way. They would need to be altered so humans could use them, but Isha was certain she could teach them some things.
The Emperor arched a curious eyebrow, and taking the silent invitation, Isha began to explain.
Author's Note: Short, but I hope the speed of the update makes up for it, and the next chapter will be nice and long.