I do not own the Warhammer 40000 universe nor any of its characters. They belong to Games Workshop.
Inspired by the Dornian Heresy, by Aurelius Rex.
Innocent
"We were so blind in the beginning," explained Malusis. His voice was warm, friendly even. It made the screams of the man he was flaying alive sound all the more horrible in contrast.
The man in the Chaos Lord's "care" had once been the Governor of this world, which was known to the Imperium as Hadron's Standing. In truth, considering the small size of the world's population – which was restricted to a single city, located atop the only mountain that rose above the flesh-dissolving clouds of burning chemicals that covered the rest of the world – calling him a mayor rather than a Governor would have been more appropriate, but the Administratum was ever a stickler for proper procedure.
Now the city burned, for the Chaos Marines who called themselves the Innocent had come. Their warships had destroyed what few orbital defenses the system had with ease, and the Planetary Defense Forces had been no match for their ruthless onslaught. Nothing now remained to stand against the Astartes in garish armor and silver masks.
"I was one of the first," Malusis continued, his voice taking on a storyteller's cadence. "At the time, there were only eight of us – a band of vagabonds and exiles, brought together by the vagaries of the Long War. Myself, I was from the Eighth Legion, banished by my brothers because I had become a little too … enthusiastic in my work for their taste. Well, I say 'banished' : they tried to kill me, but I managed to escape."
"We were so petty back then ! So obsessed with our own grievances and sins. Even I was trapped in it, always wondering if my brothers didn't have a point, if I wasn't the monster they had accused me of being. I kept telling myself that what I had done, I had done in the name of justice – that they had just not been willing to go far enough to ensure proper punishment was doled out."
Malusis laughed, the sound rich and joyous. "Can you imagine, my friend ? The sheer arrogance of it ! To think that I somehow held in my head the truth of justice and punishment ! Foolish, really. But such were our ways back then. We were lost and blind, and we did not even know it."
"Anyway, the eight of us were wandering across the galaxy, fleeing from our various foes and searching for opportunity. Our ship at the time was quite a piece of junk, and its engines broke down while we were in Warp transit, forcing us to exit the Empyrean immediately and trust into the mercy of the Gods."
"The first sign we were blessed was that we did not re-enter the Materium within the heart of a star or in the middle of an asteroid field. Indeed, we appeared instead within a solar system, one with an inhabited world ! While our servants worked on repairing the engines, me and the rest of our group went to investigate the planet. Our auspexes detected no true technology, but we were hoping to at least replenish the ranks of our slaves from the local population. And we did; but we also found much, much more."
"It turned out that the system had been cut out from the rest of the galaxy for thousands of years. The human population had long since forgotten everything about their origins, and had begun to worship the Ruinous Powers in exchange for their blessings – which they needed in order to survive on their beast-infested world. With the power bestowed upon them by the Dark Gods, they had built great cities in the middle of the jungles, sealed off from the vegetation by high walls. Of course, those did nothing to stop us and our gunship !" He laughed again, briefly lost in the fond memory.
"The natives welcomed us as gods, and brought us into their greatest temple. There were carvings on the walls, centuries old, that depicted me and my brothers – their priests had known, long before any of us was even born, that we would come here one day."
"All of their priests wore masks like this one," he continued, gesturing at his face with a hand holding a knife dripping with blood. Like the other Astartes amidst the smoking ruins of Hadron's Standing, his helmet was partially fused with a silver mask of exquisite detail that covered the upper half of his face completely. "And they offered us our own, which had been forged especially for us according to their ancient prophecies."
"At the time, we tried to refuse. We were suspicious of their sorcery, and none of us trusted prophecies. As I said before, we were fools. The priests had no choice but to force us to stand still using their enforcers – huge brutes bloated with the power of the Dark Gods – before applicating the masks onto our faces. And then … And then we saw."
He sighed. "It was like nothing else, my friend. We saw the Silver Palace of the Youngest God, Slaanesh, the Profligate One, Lord of Pleasure and Pain. We saw all of the six Courts of Sensation, all of the holy debaucheries and perversions that the daemons of Slaanesh bestow upon the chosen souls of those who served the Prince in life."
"It was then that we understood. There is no sin, you see, only power. The Warp responds to our deeds, but it does not judge them, and what greater authority can there be that the total sum of every ensouled creature that has ever lived and will ever live ? And if there can be no sin then … then we must, each and every one of us, be Innocent."
The Chaos Lord chuckled.
"It was that revelation that led to us taking our new names. We began to call ourselves the Innocent, and we went on to spread the gift of our understanding to others. Because you see, my friend, the more of our brothers we illuminate, the more powerful the Innocent become – and the more powerful our warband becomes, the more each of us becomes in turn, since we are part of the whole." He frowned. "Are you following me, my friend ? I fear your attention may have wandered. Here, let me help you focus."
With his free hand, Malusis pulled out the flayed man's eyes, his armored fingers digging into the soft tissues of the eyeballs and cracking the bones around them. Throwing the bloody mess aside, he continued :
"We took the priests with us to the stars, that they may craft new masks for us to bestow. For you see, the more of us there are, the better we can do the work we know must be done : the destruction of all artifices, of all the lies of laws and morality that bind the truth of human nature. We are all of us free, or we are none of us free … or something like that. I admit that my skill at expressing the truth of our illumination isn't up to the task yet."
The flayed Governor finally sighed his last breath, his tortured heart giving up from the sheer amount of pain he was experiencing. Malusis patted the bloody corpse on the head.
"Thank you for the opportunity to practice, friend."
Turning away from his victim, the Chaos Lord smiled as the ashes of Hadron's Standing fell upon him in a black snow. Deep within, part of him screamed in horror, guilt and shame – but the silver mask on his face drained those feelings from him, sucking them dry like a psychic tick.
"Lord Malusis," called one of his brothers. "Look up. We have company."
From the ash-filled skies, a golden being was descending on shining wings. It – for just by looking at it, Malusis could tell that this creature was beyond such concepts as gender – landed amidst the forest of spikes, and none of the Innocent or their servants dared to stand in its way as it slowly made its way toward Malusis himself.
The Chaos Lord could feel the power radiating from the entity. He recognized it, from stories swapped by the followers of the Ruinous Powers. This was the Sanguinor, the Golden Herald of the shattered Ninth Legion. Yet it was said to walk the galaxy accompanied by a retinue of Blood Angels – and none of those vampiric Astartes were in sight, save for the few who already wore the Innocent's masks.
Lord Malusis, the winged figure said, its voice projected directly into the Chaos Lord's mind.
I have come to offer you a chance to fulfill your purpose. To strike at the very heart of those who enforce the lies of the False Emperor, at the forge where the hidden blades of tyranny are crafted. Where the greatest hypocrisy of the Imperium resides; where mortals are made to know nothing but death, yet are shackled with the lie of justice.
"And what, golden one, would you ask of the Innocent in return ?"
Only that you do as you will, once you are brought across. Is that not the only thing one can ask of another ?
Malusis considered the offer. His mind had changed a great deal since the days he had fought under the banner of the King of the Night, twisted first by hatred and a hunger for suffering, then by the sorcery of the mask that had been forced upon him. Like all the Innocent, he thought in strange and cruel ways, alien to those who did not share the warband's madness.
"I accept," he finally said.
The Innocent gathered their forces, an army of Chaos Marines, tanks and mortal cultists. The mask-crafters were brought from their ships in orbit, for the Sanguinor had told Malusis that they would be delivered directly before the walls of their despised foe, and the Innocent would not leave the ones who had illuminated them behind. Each of the holy artisans was surrounded by a ring of bodyguards, mortal champions of Chaos who had proven strong enough to survive the power of the silver masks themselves. Of course, unlike the Innocent, they could not truly withstand the awesome power of illumination, and were reduced to little more than vessels for the power of Truth.
Malusis drank from the Sanguinor's cup, and felt the metal of his mask burn as the liquid touched it on its way to his lips.
The bargain is sealed, declared the Sanguinor. Let the Angel's will be done !
The ashes of Hadron's Standing rose up at once in a great black cloud, and rushed on the Innocent from all sides. Malusis heard the mortals cry out in fear as they were engulfed. His sight was obscured, and he heard something like glass breaking in the distance.
When the blackness receded, the Innocent stood beneath another sky, smoking rubble under their feet. Absently, Malusis noted the six corpses laid around him in a circle, and the blood pattern traced upon the piece of stone on which he stood – the only piece left intact of whatever structure their arrival had destroyed. But before he could wonder if those were the fools who had helped the Sanguinor bring the Innocent across, his eyes fell upon the cathedral before them.
It seemed ordinary, no different from all the others in the distance. But Malusis knew, merely by looking at it. He could sense what laid within, the power and the obscene lies that were embedded in the very stone of that fortress of abominations. He could taste the pretense of justice, the abdication of free will in the name of a so-called greater purpose.
For the first time since he had put on the silver mask that had broken whatever shred of nobility had remained within him, the former Night Lord felt hatred. He raised his hands in the air, holding his daemonic axe for all of his assembled forces to see.
"Let there be no sin !" He shouted, the war-cry echoed by thousands of throats. "Let there be only Innocence !"
There was a great roar, as hundreds of silver masks pulsed with Warp energy, infusing their wearers with renewed strength and purpose through the same link that let them bleed their hosts dry of guilt and shame. The unholy artefacts bit deeper into the flesh of the Chaos Marines, and their baleful influence spread to the mortal army arrayed at their sides, infusing them with the same relentless purpose, the same complete absence of conscience.
And so the Innocent went forth, to assault the Assassinorum Temple, while the Angel War unfolded across Sol.
AN : Back on track with some margin : the next two interludes are already written, and will be published tomorrow and the day after.
Next chapter of A Blade Recast is done, but I think it still needs a bit of polish. It's also shorter than the other ones, but I don't think anyone want me to pad it out, so expect it to be published sometimes tomorrow.
Which of the interludes published so far is your favorite ? What aspects of them do you hope to see developed once we enter the Angel War proper ? Tell me !
Zahariel out.