Author's Note: For those interested, there are now eight advance chapters on P-atreon (remove the spaces and dash): p-atreon/ SkySage24.
Horus Lupercal had always been destined for greatness.
He had known this for as long as he could remember, ever since he had been a small child wandering the streets of Cthonia's hives.
He had always been smarter, stronger, faster and simply put, better than the other children, the street rats that had followed him around.
It hadn't been long before even outsmarting adults was easy, and that he could beat even multiple grown men in a fight.
His gang had expanded, even if it had just been kids. They had stolen and insulted and mocked the greatest gang-lords of Cthonia, and gotten away with it.
In time, Horus was sure he would have risen to build the greatest gang in Cthonia, ever. All the others would have been forced to pay fealty to him, and he would have remade the world.
But destiny had other plans.
His father had come to find him and revealed the truth of where Horus came from, and what awaited him.
His younger self's dreams of being the greatest gang-lord in Cthonia seemed so…petty now, Horus mused. He would return there someday, to claim the world for the Imperium.
But Cthonia was just one world of no particular significance. There was a galaxy out there, just waiting to be claimed.
And Horus had every intention of taking it.
He stood on a balcony, the pale light of early dawn illuminating the training grounds below. In the sand, surrounded by the watchful eyes of veteran Thunder Warriors, his old friends Ezekyke and Alyssa were sparring.
They were both taller and stronger now, having been augmented by the Emperor's Biotechnical division into Space Marines. Astartes, augmented by Horus's gene-seed.
In the course of a few short months, both of them had gone from scrawny teenagers to towering pillars of muscle that bulged below their grey training uniform, both seven feet tall. They could bend iron with their bare hands, move faster, think faster and even without armour, defeat a dozen lesser men in hand-to-hand combat.
They were living weapons of war now, ready to be part of Horus's Sixteenth Legion as he led them to conquer the Solar System and beyond.
The Primarch couldn't have been prouder.
Of course, the differences in his friends were nothing compared to the growth that Horus himself had experienced. He had always grown faster than other children, much faster. His father had explained that it was a deliberate part of the way he had designed the Primarchs, to ensure they achieved maturity rapidly.
In the two years since coming to Terra, Horus had doubled in height and his muscles had filled until he had the build of one of his father's Custodes…and that build betrayed the fact he was stronger than most of them. His hair was as long as his father's now, albeit much wilder.
Horus liked it that way. He loved his father, but taming his hair to look exactly like the man wasn't something Horus was interested in. The wildness reminded him a little of Cthonia, of his earliest days.
Over the last few years, he had absorbed every lesson the finest teachers and tutors in the Imperium had to offer. From Valdor, Horus had learned wrestling, martial arts, weapons handling, strategy and tactics. From Malcador, Horus had learned how to manage nobles and administrate an empire, how to rule.
And from the army of other tutors his father had hired, Horus had learned history and science and a myriad other subjects besides.
Some subjects had bored him if Horus was being honest. Music and poetry and art and all the like. It wasn't that they were difficult, he just didn't see the point.
He was a general, who led the armies of the Imperium to conquer the stars beyond. Why did he need to learn to write a poem or make a painting? He wasn't one of those ridiculous nobles who simpered over his father, competing for the Emperor's attention, seeking to impress him and earn his favour.
But his father had insisted, and so Horus had learned the basics if nothing else.
Though Horus had enjoyed driving those particular tutors to madness more than he had enjoyed learning from them if he was honest.
In the fields below, Alyssa finally pinned Ezekyle to the ground with one knee.
"Yield!" She snapped, her brown eyes gleaming with determination.
"I yield," Ezekyle said after a long moment.
Then, they both finally smiled and Alyssa helped Ezekyle to his feet.
Grinning, Horus jumped down from the balcony, landing on the sand as he strode over to his friends.
"Primarch Horus!" They both said when they noticed him, instantly snapping to attention and saluting.
Horus felt his smile become a little strained. "Ezekyle, Alyssa, please. Just Horus."
He didn't particularly like the formality his friends had adopted around him these days, ever since they had begun their training as Space Marines. At his request, they had not been subject to the much harsher indoctrination methods that had been implemented over the past few years. But the Emperor had been firm that they would have to at least undergo the same level of training that the first Space Marines had been subject to at the inception of the Legions.
Horus's friends had always treated with him a certain deference, and he couldn't say he minded that. He was the leader, after all.
But there was something about the military precision, the formality and the distance with which Ezekyle and Alyssa treated him that made the Sixteenth Primarch uncomfortable.
"Horus," Ezekyle said, a strange expression on his face which suggested he found it almost alien to say that even though he had called Horus by his first name for years.
Horus didn't like it at all, but what could he say? He had urged his friends to become Space Marines so that they could stay by his side.
Both Ezekyle and Alyssa had expressed doubts, and the Biotechnical Division had recommended waiting two more years until they were both grown adults, but Horus hadn't been able to accept the idea.
(Hadn't been able to accept that the two of them might decide against becoming Space Marines)
And here he was.
"So, how about a day with me?" Horus suggested with a grin. "We can go out and explore the city, it'll be like old times."
"We have training all day, Lord Primarch-, Horus," Alyssa corrected herself. Her previously long blonde hair had been cropped short in the same military style as most Imperial soldiers, and it was a little strange to see.
"It'll be fine," Horus said, waving a hand. "I'm a Primarch, nobody will refuse me."
He turned to the Thunder Warrior trainer, whose name he couldn't quite remember at the moment. "Right, Sergeant?"
The older man, with leathery skin and short white hair, looked faintly exasperated but didn't protest. "As you wish, Lord Primarch. These two are to free go with you if that is what you want."
"Thanks!" Horus said with a grin, slapping the man on the book with enough force to make even the Thunder Warrior stumble slightly. "Come on then, you two!"
Alyssa and Ezekyle exchanged a look, but that only made Horus feel better. It was something they'd done many times before, when he had to pull them along on something they considered crazy, and it was relieving to see even the hypno-indoctrination and training hadn't wiped that away.
Sometime later, after his friends had washed up and put on clean clothes, the three of them made their way through the winding hallways of Bai-heng.
After two years here, Horus found even the labyrinth inside the mountain easy to navigate, and as Primarch, he had access to almost everything. As they passed through the cavernous halls, the servants bowed their heads wherever he passed, and the guards opened doors for him without a hint of protest.
As much as he had enjoyed his heists back in Cthonia, Horus would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy this very much.
"Where are we going?" Ezekyle asked, frowning.
"Nothing much," Horus answered breezily. "I want to show you two the city, that's all. We'll wander around, have a bite to eat, and see some sights."
They emerged out on the docks built into the side of the mountain. The sight of various ships landing and taking off greeted them, the shouts of conductors and the whirs of engines. At the end of the dock were clustered a small group of golden vessels, the Emperor's private airships which he used for a variety of different purposes.
From here they'd be able to take a small ship down to the city when a voice called out from behind them. Horus briefly pondered taking one of his father's vessels before dismissing the idea. There were other, less ostentatious ships he could take-
"Horus!"
Everyone on the dock stiffened, as their eyes turned to the golden presence of the Emperor of Mankind.
Horus's heart warmed at the sight of his father, and he grinned even more broadly. Ezekyle and Alyssa both fell to one knee in the Emperor's presence, but there was no such need for him.
"Father!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Malcador told me you were busy with some research project."
His father smiled, his white teeth sparkling in the sunlight.
"I was, but I've made considerable progress thanks to the help of Lady Isha, so I thought I would take a break."
It was then that Horus noticed the other presence standing just behind his father.
Just as tall as the Emperor, with waist-length ruby red hair, jade eyes, pointed ears and bronze skin, his father's alien colleague was easy not to notice in the light of the Emperor's blinding radiance.
But once you did notice her, it was very hard to ignore her. Though dressed in simple blue robes, Isha had her own presence, quieter than the Emperor's, but strong.
But there was an element to it that even the Emperor did not have because Isha just…wasn't human.
Horus had wondered more than once if that was why she seemed immune to him, why she was always polite and kind but never deferential.
But the Emperor had always been evasive on the topic, even after Lady Isha had been publicly revealed to be an alien. And it wasn't like Horus had met any other Eldar he could compare Isha to.
The woman in question said nothing, simply folding her arms as her eyes swept across the docks before settling on his friends. There was a spark of something almost like disapproval in her eyes and her lips twisted into a frown, instantly making Horu's hackles rise.
Isha was the one who had made it so that even adults could become Space Marines. She wasn't impressed by the fact that Ezekyle and Alyssa had been augmented so young, but what business was that of hers?
They were his friends. They had made their choice to follow him.
Isha didn't have any right to have opinions about that.
But before Horus could say anything about her expression, the Emperor spoke again. "I intend to make another trip to the Pacific to inspect our holdings there, and I was wondering if you'd like to accompany me, Horus?"
"Of course!" Horus said eagerly. "I'd love to!"
"Excellent. We'll depart in half an hour, so I suggest you say your goodbyes before then."
Without another word, the Emperor set off for the ships clustered at the end of the dock. Lady Isha stood for a moment longer, watching Horus and his friends with an unreadable expression before she turned away and disappeared back into the mountain.
Feeling embarrassed, Horus turned to his friends. "So looks like my plans changed," He said. "Some other time?"
The same exasperated look they had worn earlier appeared again, but Alyssa and Ezekyle didn't object. "Some other time," Alyssa agreed. "We should go back to our training."
"Right!" Horus grinned, offering a salute. "Have a good time!"
Returning his salute with their own, his friends went back the way they had come, while Horus turned towards the Epona.
He felt almost guilty for how things had turned out. He had meant to spend today with his friends.
But the allure of spending time with his eternally busy father far outweighed that, and Horus had to stop himself from practically running towards the Epona.
This tour of their holdings was going to be fun.
Author's Note: Apologies for the late update, but I needed a break last week.
For those of you interested, here's an invite code to my D-iscord server: 28Ct4je5