Chapter 18:

Chapter 18: Heavy is a doomed crown and yet it fits snugly on a pious head.


The divine had separated from reality for 3.6 million years ago and our damnation started then too, if a bit earlier.

None remember why, and it is not written anywhere anyone could find, for Khaine's last and greatest culling we call the Wars of the Bloody Hand today almost brought the Empire of Ten Million Suns to its end as his Divine Wrath killed all until only 3 in 100 eldar that lived before it started, lived immediately afterwards. Records were lost and Asuryan raised the barriers between Eldar and Divine to prevent our extinction for however we have erred none remember it or how to fix it and Khaine was not stopping.

The war lasted for one year and there are worlds that are now more populated than what was left of us then.

In the timespan since then, the closest the Empire usually gets to the Divine walking among them is their masks for they act in their name and the divine sees and speaks through them as them, but even so they are incredibly limited when doing so.

The birth of a new Mask is enough to send shockwaves through the Empire as each act as Divine and follow their decrees, for in order to act as Divine one must embody the Divine. Recently some had learned to sing and it brought terror to the places that can still feel it thanks to the Divinely Ordained Hero of Craftworld Anean called Taraithe Tagasta.

This is a lie, a lie dressed in the garments of truth for as the crown makes one king, so does the king bring value to the crown and the Pheonix King of the Empire of Ten Million Suns is worthless and he and his predecessors made the crown worthless too. It is so for the Mask already knew to sing, it just needed someone to give it an excuse to do so, and the Hero was merely delivered to its Craftworld to help them face their damnation.

That was truth and yet it felt not so, even as I could not see why, for while being an Eye of Lileath gave you many boons and abilities, one needed to be able to look at that which they wished to see in order to decipher its secrets and I could not do so, for the Divine stopped me.

Khaine used its divine right to block all divinations of that event, both future, present and past. Cegorach helped and my own Patron petitioned the king of the pantheon to make it so.

The only one that objected was Isha and none could understand why, but the decree had passed and now said event is blocked from sight across all time and space and all attempts to divine the event and connect one to the event had failed.

Even the identity of the hero who had done so was more guess than fact for there were thirty such candidates but I was confident it was correct.

Bessar, who has told none but family or those like it and apprentice that he is Agail, knew the identity of the Mask, of that I am certain even if I do not believe that he is it.

This is because there are three types of nonsense that the Eldar empire recognizes as true.

The first is that of the lesser species, for what they do is rarely logical to Eldar minds.

The second type of nonsense is that of the Eldar for it is the same but grander in scale for that which can get one's action to be called as Nonsense by others create such ripples few can imagine and no mortal race creates greater ripples than an Eldar.

A third is Divine Nonsense for that which they do affects the entire Great Wheel and shudder when it happens regardless of whether the Divine is Eldar or not.

A fourth has been created on my world by a master that is 53 years old and is a master of an art he and his siblings have created and whose second craft makes dream catchers all but obsolete.

Dream catchers as a craft are older than the Empire of Ten Million Suns. They had been taught to us by the Old Ones who had who had used them for twice as long as the empire has stood.

A 53 year old master of a craft he and his siblings have invented somewhere in a cave made them nearly obsolete, and this is the least of his nonsense too.

I can't see where they have done so either. Cegorach abuses ancient edicts to prevent me from doing so and I cannot even find that which he uses to do so. This lifts the nonsense from Eldar Nonsense to Divine Nonsense.

It gets worse, for The Divine walked on my world.

I am Sil Orgaus, princess of the World of a Thousand Names by birthright and the Divine comes for me, for it believes I had wronged it.

Khaine the Bloody-handed walked upon my world and whispered and pleaded that which he synchronized with for mercy and restraint. My own daughter sang to me for me to believe and to feel it happen with my soul.

Divine synchronization is a known phenomenon, one that very few survive to know that it is a known thing. It happens sometimes when the madness of an Eldar goes through such heights the divine edicts cannot tell the difference between the madness of an Eldar that which is Divine.

Khaine is the most common this happens with, followed by Lileath and Gea and then Asuryan.

I am in shock, for they last seconds at best and they always spur one to action that the madman proceeds to do before the synchronization with the divine ends.

Bessaric Nonsense I have named that which surpasses the level of Divine Nonsense.

I am in shock, that for the first time that Eldar have had records for to record it, Khaine whether before his hand turned bloody or after had pleaded restraint.

He never does so. He has never done so. Even when he comes to the passing of new edicts he either votes yes or abstains. And yet he asked that which had become as him to stay his hand, if only for seconds, and do not kill that which had caused its maddening Divinity yet.

Aisse Geara, who almost was Innia Bris, was adopted by that which became like Khaine and Khaine counseled mercy to. One look at her soul was enough to anger her father so much that the least merciful of all gods the Eldar know as true asked for restraint.

I do not know how else to call such, for none have heard of such and words and songs and concepts and other things fail me and so I have created new ones to explain that which I feel.

Bessaric Nonsense

The target of his wrath yet lived. Aisse Geara's parents and family which have forsaken her and prevented a soul who wished to dance between the stars and beyond them from doing so had died. Her former home is gone, the names of parents and other family replaced with a mark of Khaine in any and all registers one could find them on, for they angered that which is divine and caused it to walk among mortals again for a full minute, the longest on record too and triple that of the previous record too.

The girl whose soul has caused such an event lives and the deed Khaine has done is once again struck from all records, for the only way one could verify it is to have known the names beforehand and see the Mark of Khaine on them. None others can even find the Mark of Khaine that replaced it.

They were extirpated and that is Khaine's right to do so which is reinforced by 129 edicts I could find.

I do not believe Bessar Agail is the Mask that learned to sing, for he synchronized with his patron to such an extent that not even the Divine could condone the hatred he held in his heart for that which had done and earned so, and so Divinity has restrained itself. That goes beyond what one, even if they were the most devout and deranged of Masks, could get up to.

'Bessaric nonsense rolls of the tongue does it not my husband? It is what we face the consequences of now.' I sang to my husband in numb horror.

I was spread between shock and fear and tiredness and so many emotions that sapped my energy or time or both that I could not name them

'It does my love and princess.' The song of my husband soothed me back and tried to sing of love to me but was too scared to fully do so.

If he wasn't here to love me and give me children and kisses and to stay with me my mind would have cracked a thousand years ago. If he wasn't in this room I wouldn't be.

That which Khaine The Bloody handed asked for clemency comes for me, for he believes I have summoned him three times.

The first summons his youngest sibling said as he came as a messenger was his own apprentice, Cipanni Oiair's situation.

It was rare and not unheard of for some of those who stand to defend their homes to drop out of the sword schools for it did not fit them, for not all eldar could swing a sword with their hand even as their souls were swords.

That was happenstance but the boy had a soul that was a sword made of paper and ink and string which made him perfect for an Art that has been created after he was born and on another world.

He was close to breaking for he decided to push himself to beyond exhaustion to get some meager results because he wanted to make some meager results to make his family proud. I and his parents had apprenticeships lined up for him waiting for the moment he gave up. The fool refused to do so and his Grand Aunt Gua Bis took the matter into her own hands to force him into one even as his options were drying up and he knew not that it is so.

He started with 10 potential apprenticeships at 100 years old and by the time Bessar Agail took him as apprentice he had one left with a tailor that owned me too many favors to take another apprentice until the one I have reserved for him would give up his doomed pursuit and accept he is not fit to defend his home, or he could find another master, one supposes.

His master called nonsense on that too, Divine Nonsense too, if the youngest sibling is to be believed. For a soul so perfect for the craft he has created to just fall into his lap because the first woman that showed him and his siblings a home full of kisses and hope just happened to be related to him? I had been less obvious with my manipulations in the past and future, yet none have manipulated him so.

None. I checked, my goddess checked, there was even a divine decree to investigate and hide this matter and it had not passed and nothing was found.

No god, no farseer, no seer, no madman, not even his youngest triplet who was once the oldest and now crafts and speaks to himself across sanity had done, nor even tried to do so.

It was pure accident, as pure as the plasma of the stars and it smelled so much of my manipulation it had lost all sense of logic and reason.

Even the master considered it a coincidence in isolation, for it was so obvious and nonsensical that it beggared belief.

The second invitation the sibling spoke of I have given, yet it was not fully received. My own daughter joined by her sister wife and eldest of Gua Bis and their husband was invited to the healing of Bessar Agail's daughter and her adoption as well as the healing of his apprentice Cipanni Oiai and the engagement between the two.

I have decided to send them there to provide a private invitation and a letter requesting that we meet, for there were things I wished to discuss once Cipanni Oiair finished his apprenticeship, more particularly his vengeance on his apprentices' former teachers but that could wait the 8 months it would take to the apprentice before he started teaching his masters. It was meant to be a cordial one where I would offer certain gifts and favors and expand its scope and resources available to make it happen for I did wish for the gift said vengeance would give me.

The letter did not reach him, all that did was the presence of my daughter as all three of my messengers were too frightened by divine wrath that is love to deliver it before he and divine walked as one.

The third was enemy action of the sword cults.

The cults of the not-yet-born-or-named-new-god split themselves into multiple categories.

Their militant arm are the sword cults. They eschew all other forms of battle but blades and get very creative and deranged in how they use them on themselves and others.

Sword cults are a pest I have not managed to extirpate from my schools and they always pop out back again the moment I try to focus on any one other issue for any length of time. They are a cancer I have no means to cure and instead had to constantly treat the symptoms of, for people like the adopted daughter of that which Khaine asked for clemency is one of many of my people that I have failed and now my failures come to haunt me and my family and my home.

Her parents were of a hidden sword cult, their daughter failed to be able to use a sword, so they had Forsaken her. The only reason this was noticeable to me, was because their treatment of her had earned the wrath of that which the Divine counseled mercy to.

She just continued to go to her school and her teachers because she knew not what else to do and none, not even her teachers cared, for she had no talent for the sword.

All these three combined together and I had to check my own memories, my own future and past and present and the list of every single oath I had made that is and isn't the source of my power and will make in the future to ensure that I had nothing to do with it, for if anyone who had ever heard of me thought so, all others that also did would mock them to suicide.

I had been less and more unsubtle in the manipulations I have used to fortify my world against damnation. I have replicated a similar result once before as well.

I did not do so this time and not even my children would believe me if I told them so. Only my love does, for he knows I will never lie to him. I need someone to speak nothing but what I think as truth to, for if I did not have it I would become a farseer and that is a fate worse than death for an Eye of Lileath, for my goddess herself would bring damnation upon myself and my own line, for no farseer is to ever be trusted again nor is one that has become her eye be allowed to live.

One had managed to sneak itself into such a position and, I know not why, but 7 Masks of Khaine, 12 of Asuryan, 3 of Cegorach and an army of a trillion burned down every star under which he had stood under for more than an hour.

They burned thousands of worlds too just to be sure.

I never asked why, none did, no follower of Lileath did so and if others did, they got no response, for our goddess freezes in fear and pain if she tries to remember, for she forgot and her mind bears a scar and none remembers who and what it was that made it, or when. Not even the Divine know, and all we mortals know but that which the divine will not confirm to us is that it was the farseers fault.

I have worked too hard for the divines' corpse to twitch and kill my world and so I married my husband and loved him more than I love myself because I saw all others futures I could and he was the only fool I could marry in time to avoid my fate as a farseer, for he was the only one of my suitors that was willing to give me all his trust and love and he has become my fool and my mighty warrior and father of my children and the reason I work so hard to make my home warm and pleasant for I know he needs it, as he takes all his failures too seriously and his successes not seriously enough, but I love him still for he is my fool and that is his nature.

My beloved was scared as well, far more than me in fact, and yet he had the least intention to run out of of all of us, including myself and his children and theirs.

If we angered the Mad enough that they turned Divine again, he would fight, he would die and do what he can to ensure I could run.

He called himself a coward for his fear, yet my fool had more courage than the rest of my planet put together for if they knew that what had happened did so, my planet would have no more eldar on it.

The only ones that would remain are Gua Bis' clan as they are loyal to their friends and to each other and to that which they welcome into their heart and their world, the man among men who likewise refuses to even consider running and the family of that which was once divine for their protection and mine of the event ensure none that knew what happened would live to notice that they are dead.

All that live to know of it have taken oaths upon their souls on pain of divine retribution should they break it. The souls of the dead do not remember that they have ever lived.

'What am I about the talk to the man is two lies dressed in truth my love and the unvarnished truth. You know the truth already so I beg of you to play along for he will accept nothing else.' I informed and pleaded to my husband.

I knew I didn't need to, but I promised I would be open to him, for to do otherwise is to lose my status and an Eye Of Lileath and I have taken this oath most enthusiastically.

'I trust you my love, whatever you will need I provide or die trying.' My husband sang to me as he sent me kisses and hope he did not feel.

Neither of us did, for that which was forced to clemency by the Divine was nearly upon us.

We were alone in the throne room. My children and their families were in the void on Voidships far away. They wanted to stay and protect their mother even as they were almost ready to run themselves. I made the decision for them, for that is the power I have over them that I have gained as they gained their birthright, and put their homes in spaceships and themselves on them at sword point and told them they can return tomorrow if I or their father still live.

Our warriors were told, expressly so, to not look upon the group approaching us and to leave the room once they are here and not watch any that went here.

Seven souls entered the room my husband and I pretended we were not cowering in.

The first was that which once walked as Divine. His skin was black and filled with veins of molten glowing blood, his clothes a pure white blouse and loose pants. His hair had become short again after his one minute of divinity and he came in a wheelchair pushed by his daughter and with a slave boy near him pushing a tray of warm mint tea.

I had stockpiled on it myself and made a garden filled with the plant they came from so that my children once they returned would know to make it, for it was the only thing that would be able to somehow calm him if only for a fraction. I hoped they worked with other blessed of Khaine that were angry as well.

Mint it was called, it was an import from the home world of his old people, for his soul which is now a gun-sword still remembered it dreamed of lumbering strides and to speak in thunder and death.

His soul being of another species is not unusual, it is hardly unheard of for our sword siblings that have all perished in the Ancient War against the Eaters of the Stars and their former axe slaves have died without gods to look after them too. And so the Eldar took those souls in and took them as our own for they had no more Divine to look after them, then the Divine passed 22 edicts to prevent any and all from being able to make difference between that which was once not but is now Eldar, and that which have only ever been Eldar.

Others have fallen in the bosom of the Divine from across the Great Wheel from time to time. He would be one of little more than a million.

The only way to see is to look upon their souls fully and deeply and no eldar can fully understand the difference between an Eldar soul and that which once wasn't, for they are both shaped like a sword.

I know of it because a Divine called him a Gun-Sword and there is only one gun species left on the Great Wheel. They've killed the rest thousands of years ago, and the only ones left that are close to it are the Choppas and Choppa-Shoota sons of Gork and Mork that look upon them in fondness and friendship as they thunder their Warcries at each other in glee and fury that are often interchangeable.

Bessar Agail used to be a son of Man and Clay. He is now an Eldar and the divine ensure that none will treat him otherwise for it for their own decrees say so and they must follow them.

The other four souls that entered my room are his three siblings and Gua Bis for she is the Matriarch of the clan that now feels has been wronged.

"I greet you he-who-walked-as-divine Bessar Agail, his family and loved friend Gua Bis." I said.

"It is an honor to receive you in our halls." My husband continued.

The seven bowed, six deeply and seventh as much as he could for his body was battered even as his soul smoldered and cried to cut and shoot in thunder and death.

I have not lost their respect yet, that is good.

"I greet you princess, I have received your three invitations and I have come to see what you wished of me." The man who once walked as god rasped.

His slave boy poured tea to cure it and calm him down. I could see as the molten blood turned a fraction less bright and thanked the slave boy for it.

'I will make sure he is very loved once his master frees him.'

"I am glad that you have done so, but I have only sent one and you came to me before I could send the second."

"Oh, do you expect me to believe it?"

"I do, for it is as close to truth as I can explain. The first invitation your brother came and spoke of was the part of another scheme I was undertaking to help Gua Bis and her nephew, for the boy is foolish and refuses to give up on swinging a sword to prove his family that he is worthy of their love even as he himself is less and less likely to believe he is worthy of it. The boy would not give up and so I had to weigh the scales and force him to."

It was a truth within a lie within a truth that lives among the teeth of a lie. I was planning on it too, just not with him as his master. He wasn't even someone I looked much at until Gua Bis came and told me of the apprenticeship he had been forced into. I had planned his future in seventy heartbeats then all but forgot about it.

I had bigger things to worry about then.

The seven pondered it and a few seconds later I could feel Gua Bis sending her thanks. I have sang three oaths to not manipulate others to their disadvantage that she and her clan benefited from one way or another

The first was to the sword-siblings of my husband for they kept him safe.

The second was to my husband for I swore his loyalty and love to me would only ever be rewarded and I promised I would not harm him or that which he held dear as long as they are loyal.

The third was to her personally for she is a good friend.

'That is one crisis averted my love.' My love sang to me in encouragement as he showered me in love and hope.

They believed it.

"And the second? I suppose that is what the first actual invite was meant to be?"

'Yes, but you did not receive it fully.' I thought irritated.

"Yes, I wished to join in your plotting for vengeance and wished to see if I cannot speed it up for I dearly wish the gift it will grant me and wish to wait less for it."

Bessar Agail nodded. That was what he expected as well for it could be nothing else.

I sent my daughter and her two beloved there with just a word, for they already wanted to be there to see the show he would put.

"You are not invited I'm afraid, I wish for this to be a family matter and while you are family of family both Gua Bis and myself have decided on this before I had set upon adopting my daughter."

The whisper I knew would come, came for me.

"And my daughter? Who was responsible for it or will you try to shirk responsibility there too?" The man whispered as Divine and God were once again one.

"You walked as Divine and took vengeance on all that had a hand in doing it. The girl was born in a sword cult, and had no talent for swords, so she was Forsaken by them before you arrived on my world and they remained hidden before Divine Vengeance fell on them.

None cared for the girl before you and the one she loves and is to marry decided to care. Her teachers did not because she could not swing a sword, her friends had no need or want of her because she could not swing a sword and her own parents were disgusted that she existed and forsook her years before because she could not swing a sword and I had never heard of her name or seen anything of her before you took her as your own." I pleaded as truth suffused every single one of my words.

I could not lie on this, if I tried I would die, for I have foreseen it. The divine would whisper if I lied and I would die.

"I see."

The whispers stopped, the veins became what they were when he entered, the cracks mended before my eyes.

A slave boy, who would one day be more, poured tea into the cup of his master. His master and every single one in the room silently sang and thanked him for it.

"I forgive you for it." The man who was once divine said.

His veins stopped glowing, his skin turned from dark to gray and the air I did not notice was dark and red stopped being so.

"I thank you for it."

My voice has not changed once since we started talking, it had been confident and self assured and now I actually started to feel it.

The entire room sang in relief, his siblings and daughter the most of it. Bessar Agail had lost the partial synchronization he had kept with his god for seven hours. Again it was a record for the longest one had kept such up before was two hours. He was now just tired and wrung dry of hate and murder, and his blessing was once again covered by the eye patch he loved to wear on his left eye for before it could not do so before, for it burned too fast.

'We need to make sure our children know how to make mint tea, it can calm Khaine and turn his fiery tongue less so.' I sang to my husband.

We would have to ensure Cipanni Oiair and the slave boy would teach them so.

They were the only ones that knew to make it right and we thanked them for it, even if only one was here to receive our gratitude.



AN:

Sil Orgaus= súil órga→ golden eye