Chapter 97:

Chapter 97: Fear and hope makes one do strange things.





There are many things I do not know despite my upbringing.

Some I do not know because I never bothered to learn as I had to prioritize certain things as I prepared for adulthood. Others, such as the ability to peer into the past and present, I do not know because I am forbidden from learning due to my role in the Speakers of Apocalypse and the Followers of Hoeth.

But I know the hearts of my people, I know what moves them, I know the contradicting imperatives in our souls, the conflict between what we wish to be and what our parents wish to be and have a better eye than most on how that takes place in the heart of each of us.

For example the pirate clan in whose graces I have been inserting myself for the past two days as I await for the Information broker to return with a place and a date for meeting the clan of Brisea Amada is an archetypal example of our dual needs.

On one hand there is the ingrained need for violence present in all of us that the clan has taken to slaking through piracy, which is a disturbingly common way of life outside of the Empire and if anything will become more common and not less in the future. On the other hand is their desire to be seen, to be heard for their stories to be written down or whispered with awe and fear.

There is a reason the Armada purges pirates from time to time, despite our organization existing primarily to combat outside threats. We don't bother with wars between princes, religious disputes, trade disputes and so on because we quite frankly don't care. Our primary concern is to Murder everything that threatens our species, we quite frankly don't care what our species does as long they don't touch our infrastructure, because if any of us gets beaten by civilians then they got what they deserved.

The Armada does not tolerate uselessness and the Armada demands that each of us is capable of handling anything that would threaten civilians, but if civilians can take you out then you can't do what you're meant to do and so you are useless. The Armada tolerates many things, but uselessness is not among them.

On our first ritual, my younger siblings and I knew perfectly well we were on our own, our Father even assuming he would have lived would not have come to save us from the consequences of our actions after we started as his protection only lasted while we were training. Once the training was over and it was time to prove ourselves, it is only our performance that would determine if we made it or not and whoever managed to kill us would not have faced reprisal from the Armada.

Despite us not caring of such things, eldar pirates are hunted by the Armada for they are the one group of our people we can be bothered to care about. We don't care for sirens, for ship-eldar, for mandrakes, for any of the other types of clans and cults or scrap, not normally at the very least, but we regularly hunt pirates.

We do so for a single reason, because they are too close to what our people are naturally. They are a star-faring culture built around plunder and violence first and foremost and we need to keep their numbers low to prevent a culture of Small Singing Swords from re-emerging. We don't need or want them back and pirates are where they're the most likely to return from and so we keep their population small while various other institutions mess with them regularly.

Pirates know we hunt them on occasion, it is the one thing the civilians see the Armada do every now and then as the number of those eldar soldiers in the open dwindles and yet we continue our pirate hunts. This has made pirates fear us on instinct.

Just to hear that a member of the Armada is near them it cause the vast majority of pirate clans to flee and I would not be surprised if the clan I am currently being hosted by is the only one left in a hundred light-year radius. The only reason they are running yet is because I am here and their ships and other clan members are not.

It is for that reason that I could barely contain my laughter at my attempted mugging. The children of pirates trying to prey on their natural predator? Who heard of that nonsense?

When their elder kin came for them, they knew not what they hunted either but they came in search for their children and cared not for themselves and that made sense. Even the following hours where the clan was trying to box me in and find a way to kill me made sense to me.

I attacked one of their children, the circumstances mattered not even if I was merely defending myself and their instincts of protecting their young had overridden those demanding that they flee and it took me hours to slowly manipulate them into not openly trying to kill me and make them comfortable enough around me. The fact they don't quite want me here but are forced to act otherwise makes sense to me, it is what I am actually expecting.

What doesn't make sense to me is that now, after they calmed themselves, after the members of the clan realized the danger they're in with a priest and a member of the Armada here, now they decided to become confusing and act irrationally.

"Rise and duel me priest." The woman with black hair and green eyes growled at me.

She also took the chance to stab the table with a knife in what I assume it's the start of a ritual among her people. I could already feel it take shape and have it pull me into it.

She, like most of the pirate women here were half-naked, but unlike the rest of the women here was the mother of my would-be muggers.

"Why would I do that? There is no reason for us to fight as far as I am concerned." I asked and took a sip of one of the teas the pirates have offered me.

I liked the taste greatly even if it was also a dangerous neurotoxin and hemotoxin that could kill dozens of Eldar with each sip. I don't need my blood, heart of brain to operate and so the taste was quite appreciated, and its a shame that my hosts will not partake with me in it. I am unsure if they are still trying to kill me or not, but I'll choose to believe they just decided that I am built different and are thus just being polite by giving me good tea.

I'll choose to believer this because it's the best thing I ever drank and they were quite happy to give me plenty of the leaves in a special container to keep them fresh when I asked. It doesn't even need sugar, it is naturally sweet and filled with an earthly aroma.

The pirate woman did not care for my tea and even as I took another sip of it her eyes narrowed.

"You traumatized my children, manipulated my clan with whatever mind domination you've cast on them while I was tending to my children to get them to sleep and dare say there is no reason to fight?"

Domination? Is that what they think I've done to them? Individuals outside of the Empire enjoy naming and categorizing the different types of psychic abilities one has as if they were lists and categories on a spreadsheet. Doing it this way is incredibly limiting in actually becoming skilled at using your powers but it serves as a crutch to focus one's learning early on.

Mind Domination is a common term for subverting the mind of others and it is not limited to only one single ability but describes an obscene amount of related and unrelated abilities made to so similar things and the most important thing about it is that I can't be bother to learn it or care for it. I don't need it when interacting with Eldar and humans are easy enough to talk with assuming you're not doing something stupid or have managed to make for yourself a particularly bad reputation that paints you as an untrustworthy individual.

"I spared your children for attacking me and being bad at it. If they were talented at it I would have taken them as understudies but their failure meant that they would have normally been killed off regardless of their age. You're lucky I was so amused by the novel experience to reward them with a lesson in exchange for an interesting sight as opposed to a cut of my sword to each for threatening me." I explained tiredly.

That made her wince but she would not be denied it seems. My new friend's sister was certainly a character. Irrational for sure, but I found most women get like that when it comes to things related to their children and extended family. It also seems that she has decided to come confront me now that her brother is there to look after their children.

If she had more patience or guile I could have excused it but as it is, she is just a disappointment. Was she dropped on her head by her mother or was her brother and she's just normal for the rest of the pirates?

All of those watching from afar are praying she won't set me off or die but not a single one is surprised by the outburst.

"Do you deny dominating my clan too? I am not hearing a no!" She all but shouted.

Assuming I did, does she truly expect me to just admit to it like that? I might be a villain as far as the people of this region of the galaxy are concerned but I have standards! I can't just tell her my evil plan just because she asks, she has to earn it.

"I am not denying it yet, because you accusation caught me by surprise. I don't use Mental Domination, I am not allowed to." I explained.

That only served to make her angrier and her fellow clan members songs turned even more scared. They've decided to buy themselves time until the rest of their clan comes back from their 'expedition' to confront me over what they saw as my unnatural charisma.

It wasn't charisma that brought me where I'm at and it wasn't Mental Domination as they seemed to be thinking and it seems I'll have to explain some things before our fight. The woman has already decided on a duel and I'll have to figure out how I can end this without killing her, or failing that her losing her life.

I like her brother and I don't want to have him lose family like this. Also I doubt my efforts to keep them from jumping me as a group and fill me with holes will continue being as effective after I killed one of them but that's less important than harming someone I am vaguely fond of.

They are pirates after all, them dying when they meet a big predator that can hit back is expected.

"Do you expect me to believe that?" She shouted.

I sighed at her words and silently gestured for her to sit. I started looking for some mint to make it into a tea to cool her fiery tongue. It took seconds to turn it into tea as psychic powers are useful like that, even if it wasn't my finest tea ever.

It'll have to do as I doubt she would appreciate what I am currently drinking.

"Are you familiar with the concept of glass tears?" I asked as I gave her the teacup filled with steaming mint tea.

She looked tempted to throw it on the floor, but she sensed that if she does that the danger she will be in will increase exponentially. That realization did absolutely nothing to stop her from doing what she set her mind to which was… respectable.

"You melt glass and have a drop of it fall into water, the resulting glass tear is near invulnerable at the base and is more resistant to pressure and impacts than even shurikens, but if you so much as even touch the tail it shatters as it is a massive flaw in the entire structure."

I nodded happily at that, they are an amusing curiosity for all that learn of them and coincidentally also one of the concepts foundational to the creation of the Krorks and one priests have been making use for a long time.

"Yes, something similar can be applied to psychic powers, where upon accepting certain limitations or flaws on one's self they can increase the potency of their abilities. As part of my own training as both a priest and a soldier I have taken various oaths to allow me to grow my abilities in a given scenario. Among those oaths are a proscription on peering into the future and the past, forsaking the use of Mental Domination and most associated abilities as well as lying." I admitted.

There's a few others there I did not admit to but it would not do to tell the woman that wants to skewer me alive any weaknesses she might be able to exploit.

"So you have decided to take oaths on not learning certain abilities to grow more powerful in others. Also you said most of those not associated with Mind Domination not all."

I rolled my eyes and took another sip of the tea but remained silent and she awaited for an answer and I pointed with my eyes to her cup as I expected her to drink what I made for her.

She looked like she bit a lemon when she realized I would not be speaking with her anymore unless she drank some tea. I would not be speaking with her anymore if she didn't.

I am having a nice cup of tea as we discuss the terms of our duel and why it's happening. If she wants to continue with this nonsense then she needs to drink some tea.

She drank the entire cup at once like a barbarian. She believed the thing was poisoned too and wanted to rush getting information for her clan. I'd call it cute if it wasn't tea I made.

"Done, now speak." She said through gritted teeth.

I sighed and prepared another batch to boil in the air and then poured her another.

"The tea is not poisoned, drink it properly." I instructed sternly and with a pinch disappointment in my voice.

It's been a long time since I had to use the tone of a disappointed older sibling, but this woman was certainly tiring on the nerves.

Why do I have to teach manners to a woman with kids? Who knows? I certainly don't but it seems this is my life now.

"I am not some child for you to lecture like that." She said as if her lack of basic knowledge of manners is a reason for her to be offended.

"Then act like it." I replied unimpressed.

She glared at me as if I was in the wrong here, but her glare was short lived. She fumed then picked the white teacup and took a sip from it.

The flame on her tongue relented slightly as she looked strangely at it. Mint creates a sensation of false frost on the tongue, an incredibly minor thing, but when one suffers from Khaine's anger and murder lust then their fiery tongue is cooled fractionally. It's not enough for them to actually calm down, but enough for them to notice that their anger is starting to get the better of them if they are not too far gone.

Mint provides a subtle feeling to put into contrast the hotness of one's anger to the coldness of one's tongue and makes one rethink their choices which is why I introduced the plant to Khaine what felt like a lifetime ago. Now Khaine has the fools that fell to his Murderlust like this drink so that they may get a chance to recover or avert their fate before it fully takes over.

It wouldn't have worked if I didn't introduce the plant to Khaine as I walked-as-him, but hopefully the plant will help the exarchs from falling irrevocably to Khaine. If it managed to help even one avoid that dreadful fate then the whole experience would have been worth it as it would prove that Exarchs and those like them could be cured and once you turn the impossible possible things get a lot easier afterwards.

"Calmed down?" I asked in a deadpan tone.

"What is this?" She asked as she looked strangely at the teacup.

"Mint, a plant from the birthplace of Mankind. It has some interesting interactions with those of our kind getting unreasonably angry or murderous." I explained.

She did not believe me which annoyed me. If she wants an answer then the least she could do is trust it.

"You can check on what it is and its properties on your own time, now what do you want to know? My patience is running thin."

She is a mother whose children I threatened so I am doing my best to be reasonable but I have limits. The least she could do is be direct.

"What do you mean by the fact that you are barred from using most of the abilities associated with Mind Domination?"

"What I said, with the exception of those abilities when it's obvious I am doing something for your own benefit such as Calming, or Inspiring I am not to use said abilities despite them coming easy to me. Same applies to peering through time only the restrictions there are more absolute."

"Then how did you stop my clan from just skewering you?" She asked openly.

The rest of her clan who have been trying to discreetly kill me with poison were all filled with despair, those that have been trying to find an opening or a way to get others the courage to act winced, those that have just given up had their heads hit or fall on the nearest object or flat surface, not that the woman seemed to notice.

The poor things have been trying. The sneakier ones tried to poison me, the more cowardly ones tried to gather strength in numbers only for me to come near them and have them scatter, and those with the best combat instincts are doing everything they can to not flee because they actually lived as pirates, not merely as part of a pirate clan and that makes you develop certain instincts, and their instincts are each screaming at them to run and the only reason they're not doing it is because their family is there and they need to defend them.

'Did hitting one's head to the nearest object to relieve frustration spread here? Did they get it from other species or is it something that just comes from living outside of the empire?' I pondered.

That is an actual interesting line of thought, one that the very angry overgrown child in front of me won't give me time to ponder it seems.

"You asked for a duel, you'll have to do well enough in it to find out." I declared plainly.

That made her smile and she rose from her seat and left towards what is presumably a dueling ring. I looked at her cup and saw she didn't even finish her tea.

I rose shortly after her, it seems I have a child to teach some manners to.

The song shifted as I walked and I could not so much as hear but physically feel the impact of every single individual in the building drop whatever they were doing to come watch us.

The dueling ring was more of a small arena to be honest, which made me wonder if it came with the warehouse or if it was a later addition. All Eldar infrastructure meant to accommodate any group of eldar larger than ten has some form of entertainment for all of them to be able to enjoy, be it small arenas like this one or other stranger things.

There were more than one thousands seats and the arena was half full for now which made me wonder as to their actual numbers. This warehouse is one of several and it is meant to accommodate at most two thousand people I'd say based on what I saw.

Assuming that what I have learned of void navigation outside of the Empire applies to pirates as well and that the number of ships they've claimed they have is accurate then that means there's something like around 50.000 adult eldar in this large clan. Twelve ships times four thousand as average means 48.000 adults are gone and assuming the other warehouses still have the same rough population there and there are six of them like they claimed, then this clan is… well not the largest in the area but large and influential enough to specialize their training and livelihood.

This would explain why this woman does not possess the other pirates instincts despite having seen regular combat. Despite living among pirates, despite acting like a pirate, her soul and song have not settled into the shape of piracy.

No, this woman was a guardian, a being of protection and law and duty to one's home that involved violence only when necessary. It's the only explanation that made sense based on what I am feeling and seeing.

"Stared enough?" She asked mockingly as she saw me looking at the crowd.

"No." I replied breezily.

Taking in the crowd is an important part of preparing for a performance, especially when providing an inadequate one will see the crowd turn on you. As such I need to be very attentive at what the crowd does and how it reacts.

"What even is so interesting about it when you should be preparing for a fight?"

Her tone of disgust was absolutely adorable now that I knew I was dealing with a woman of law among the pirates. Also she should not be underestimating the importance of catering to a crowd.

"I am looking at the fools betting on my death and memorizing their faces. I plan to take all the money they bet on my death as a moron tax, I suggest you do the same as you won't be leaving this arena dead."

That made her to laugh, and I could feel that on that point at least she agreed.

"Fine, I looked at them myself and I know their faces, the winner takes the moron tax." She replied with a grin.

The bookies groaned at this including my former assistant who was looking ready to cry at the lost cut now and in the future, because if this didn't become a tradition among this clan then I'll eat my armor.

Self assured, self-righteous, powerful and confident in their own power and the strength of their cause are the hallmarks of eldar law enforcement and it seems this woman embodies them to a healthy degree. It will be so funny to see these tested.

It was hilarious that not even her taking upon the archetype of law enforcement made her any less greedy but I suppose that's what a pirate upbringing would do to you, not even the prim and proper ladies of the law can't resist the allure of tomboyish greed.

"Now as you were the ones to demand this duel, it is up to me to determine the rules for it, do you agree to it?" I said as I turned to her.

"Name your terms." She demanded confidently.

"As I am a soldier, and you half a pirate and we will do an unequal points based system. One cut to myself is a point to you, one deadly hit to you is a point to me. We continue until one of us reaches one hundred points, no surrender, no retreat. I would also like to make a little game out of it, as each point one scores one of us has to answer a question to the other."

The crowd shouted loudly at the disrespect I gave to their clan member.

"Looking down on me?" She replied with fire in her veins.

Her clan started to cheer her on even louder.

She felt I was looking down on her for being a woman or a mother as some idiots think that matters. I personally didn't care for her gender, even if I disapproved of her and her brother's arrangements with their spouses. Children should have at least one full time parent to look after them, not this weird shift system they took upon themselves, but I would not comment on that with her.

Her clan's ways are their own, and as a guest it is rude to insult someone's parenting style, especially when you wear clothes they gave you. I am many things, but disrespectful of my hosts is not among them.

"No, you're simply not a pirate, not a proper one at least, pirates don't need me to keep them alive, they know damn well that they should be running. No, you're half a pirate and half a guardian. Only they get this offended when they really should be running and hiding." I replied with a shrug.

I knew this was worse, as pirates look down on everything even resembling law enforcement and to call her such? Now those are fighting words and the crowd went wild at them.

Shouts of 'Don't let him get away with it!' and 'Fight, fight fight!' started resounding as the crowd started to get pumped up.

"Fine then it's up to me to choose the weapon, swords and only psychic abilities that enhanced melee can be used to harm!" She shouted and lunged for me.

Time slowed, no that was incorrect, time continued to move at the normal speed, it is merely my perception of time that made it seem slow.

Farseers gain nigh-unmatched mastery over Seeing through time and despite what all Followers of Hoeth think of them, Farseers and the mold they created in our psyche was mighty and we couldn't just get rid of it. And despite my distaste for them I exist inside of it.

I cannot peer through the future or the past due to oaths, nor can I affect it, but the present remains open to me and affecting my perception of it was an easy enough trick.

The half-naked woman was fast for a pirate, her stride masterfully done and her sword glowed with baleful red lightning and I could even see red wisps of flames coming from her limbs as she enhanced them with a sort of Khaine derived ability I've not seen before.

It was an impressive looking charge and a decent enough way to start a match even if the follow-up would be difficult to make look impressive. It seems I would have to hype her up a bit.

I wasn't yet at the moment when I can be bothered to accelerate my body to speeds that match my perception yet and so it was a slow process to see my own body move out of the way and spun around. My blade was on my right side and so I pulled it with my left as I sidestepped to the right and spun clockwise.

The woman's attempt at a stab missed me, but my deadly pirouette did not stop and ended as my blade bit into her neck just before she escaped my reach.

Her neck and body separated and the heartbeat this happened I could feel the despair of my audience hit. Some tried to rise to strike me down, but the overgrown children should learn to not intervene in a duel and so I stopped them with a flick of my will.

"Now as to my question, why are you and all the other women half naked? Is it some sort of fashion statement for married women?" I asked.

I was honestly curious, it is the first time I saw it and the question has been bugging me.

I looked at the woman and looked puzzled at her, she continued to stay on the floor. Why isn't she reattaching her head? And why is there mourning along the crowd?

"Oh, you guys don't regenerate like the pirates in the Empire, my apologies. Let me fix you then you can talk." I said with a shrug once realization hit me.

I didn't know that the pirates outside of the Empire were that much more pathetic than those inside of it. This is basic stuff.

I reattached her head to her body with little effort and stopped her soul from leaving her body as I did promise her that she will leave this match alive.

She gasped for air as she started to move back on all four to the edge of the arena.

"Now, that's no fun, where's the bravado? Where's the self righteousness?" I mocked the fearful woman.

My audience at least seemed to be doing their roles perfectly as they stood there, even if they were praying a bit too much for the wrong reasons. She'll be getting out this alive, they don't need to pray for that.

"W-what? I died, I know I died, how?" She blabbered.

She touched her neck as if checking if it was still attached, but it was for even as I am a Soul-Healer I am still capable enough of fixing a decapitation. There was a bit of blood still but that just spiced things up in my opinion and so I didn't remove it.

"I did promise that you will leave this match alive did I not? I never said you would not die though." I shrugged.

What did she want me to do? I told her and her clan that I am a soldier in the Armada, if she thought I couldn't kill the entire population of this space station if I felt like it then she and the rest of her clan were truly fools.

I also messed up the hype I wanted to create around her, but I thought the sorry level of psychic ability shown by the people outside of the Empire was a strictly post-Fall phenomenon. I'll have to figure out how to make the rest of the clan start cheering for her. Despair and fear is all fine and good but I do need to make them feel more than just a few emotions.

"Now please pick up your sword, rise up and answer my question." I demanded as I threw her sword to her with a push of telekinetic force.

She remained fearful and did not do as I asked yet which made me sigh. It seems I'll have to dial down the difficulty and increase the motivation.

"It seems that you need some motivation to perform adequately, for it seems to have left you, and as such I am modifying the terms of your children's penance to me. I agreed to spare them if they would join my sister's crew when they became adults and was even generous enough to allow it to be by your standards at one hundred years old and not at fifty as is normal in the Empire. Now, if you don't manage to land a single hit on me I will be taking them now, if you manage to hit me once I'll take them at fifty, if you manage to cut into me twice at one hundred and if you manage to do so ten times I'll let you take their place.

This duel will only end when one of us wins, there's no surrender and no retreat as we agreed, so you can either wallow in fear as I cut you into pieces and kill you one hundred times before I allow you to leave this arena or you pick up that sword and fight for your children. You brought this upon yourself now do something about it." I declared.

That seemed to do the trick. Her fear was not gone, but complimented now with anger and the desire to protect her children. She shifted from sitting on her butt to standing on her knees and picked up her sword with fire in her eyes.

I liked those eyes, they reminded me of home. All of the corpses back home had those eyes.

She rose up swiftly and started circling me like a feline predator looking for an opening and I smiled.

Now that's more like it.