Chapter 6:

Chapter 6: The fight against time is not hopeless, but it is miserable


We did not sleep, we had decided that we will not sleep to rest until we have left this world. We decided that the nights will be used to re-evaluate our plans.

Eldar can go weeks without sleeping and feeling the negative effects, months if one is properly trained into the arts needed to make it happen. We were not trained in such arts, but our limited self study allowed us to push to three weeks before involuntarily crashing down. We had two months, 61 days to escape.

Plans 1 through 13 were abandoned, the circumstances required to make them happen no longer possible thanks to the interference coming from the Webway changing the movement and behavior patterns of the individuals too close to it. Plan 14 remained viable but only just and we've decided to keep pursuing it because it was the fastest of the plans left and that we had already walked partially upon its steps.

Plans 40 through 60 were abandoned as well, the unprompted mass changes in the cult ecosystem making them unviable or too risky.

Plans 15 through 39 remained viable, but they were already unlikely to succeed, the interference only made it worse, with the only exception being plan 20 as it remained abandoned.

All our plans, except the last three ones, plans 61, 62 and 63 required us to create strife through assassinations and use it as cover for our escape. The only changes being the order and location of the murders and strife we created.

The death of target 5, one of the three main Alchemists on this world supplying the cults had ripple effects that destroyed a third of our plans by itself but it was not alone. The deaths of other individuals and the subsequent evolution in the landscape limited our options to nearly one third of what we had started yesterday with.

The hissing of the local song-snakes was starting to subside, the morning comes. The cacophony of multiple insects and the singing snakes heralded the last hours before dawn and their cessation its arrival.

A thought, a word remained stuck in my soul as the conversations we've had in the dark mixed with considerations done under the light of the stars.

Multiple

'Multiple, multiple, multiple what?' A thread of thought came unbidden as connections my mind was only half aware of were suddenly connecting into an image I could not yet see but could feel its rough shape.

The final stroke of the brush came and hit me with all its vile passion, the image now made clear.

"There is another seer interfering with your premonitions and our plans brother."

My words snapped the triplets from the maps they were looking at. Three blank oval masks gave me their full attention.

"It would explain a lot." Was his reply as the other half of our group looked at him.

"Is it intentional?" Aesan whispered, dread coloring the surrounding area.

It did not come from him alone.

All our plans required us to remain unseen and unknown in order to succeed. We had stratagems to maybe get out of tight spots and escape if we were close to the webway gate but we were not anywhere near in a position where enacting them would serve us.

We did not have an answer for a second player on the board, we didn't even have a guaranteed way to win when we were the only one on it.

"No, I cannot guarantee it but the interference is too spread out to be targeted at us. My guess based on what we're seeing is that we have been caught in an older seers machinations and it is trying to clean it, my own premonitions making his cloudier." Came his response after a full minute of silence.

"This might mean they are coming here." Aesan offered.

"Or that their plans involve this world acting a certain way. It does not mean they will be here, only that their plans involve the people here acting a certain way." Our sister retorted.

Silence came as the Sun rose, its ray lighting up the cave more and more heartbeat by heartbeat.

"Can we use it to our advantage?" I asked Guraith. The light started to hit our helmets.

He was the only one of us with the gifts of a Seer, untrained as they are. He was the only one that had a chance of answering my question.

"Maybe, I need to at the very least know what they are planning to say for sure."

"So we can't." Marsa continued grimly.

"We make do, plan 14 remains viable for now. It and plan 28 are the only plans we have left that do not require us to interact with groups while they are near the Webway Gate so if we are lucky the interference should not affect them."

We've already used a lot of our luck already when we stopped our hunt before assassinating target 3 outside the city. If we did, neither of those plans would still be viable and we'd have to gamble even more.

"The two are mutually exclusive, plan 28 presents a higher chance of success now, its targets further away from the Webway by the time we are in position to execute it." Guraith offered as we started to rise.

The last dregs of darkness were being cleansed by the light of the Sun and when they were banished so would we.

"Plan 28 would cut down our margin of error by another three days. Do any of you want to risk it?" I asked.

Yes plan 28 could work, it would be more dangerous and slower but I think we could do it. The issue is the margin of error. If we lost access to the Maton updated map, the only plans that became viable are plans we've already abandoned. If that happened our only chance was running, hiding and praying that the centuries old hedonists with a taste for Eldar flesh more capable in psykery than all of us put together did not find us.

Maton senses gave us an edge, no Eldar thought twice upon them using their sensors on the population, they never stop doing it. Us receiving even a part of this data was a safety net, as we did not have to risk being sensed in return when we tried to determine enemy positions. Even if we did sense it we could not use the information to update each others maps, requiring us to exchange information more and and more and each exchange increasing the chance of being heard and found.

Each plan could suffer delays or perhaps we would have to switch to other plans. The plans were numbered based in order of achievability and the time this requires of us and if we decided to go with 28 then all plans before it automatically become impossible by dint that the timeframe needed to achieve them had passed or became impossible.

"No."

"No."

"No."

Were their replies. Plan 14 it is.

We started to run again, the last dregs of darkness in the cave we had occupied dying alone and in silence.

Plan 14 would require forty-eight days to complete.

The second day passed in silence. Our target, target 13, was on the other side of the city. It would take us two days to reach him. The night was spent evaluating vectors and trying to help our brother evaluate the ripples in fate that the foreign seer was creating.

The third day passed the same the only noticeable change being that our target turned from him to a she again for the 5th​ time this month. It would not change its behavior.

The third night provided confirmation to our question, the outsiders creating the disturbances would not come to this world.

"The seers' ripples have stopped shifting. It has decided on its plan and cleared my own interference." Our brother announced at midnight.

"Will they come here?" I asked.

"No, the ripples are receding, I think he has accomplished his plans, I am sensing an echo of satisfaction in the pattern of recession."

Gloating, the seer is gloating to all that can hear that it has triumphed in whatever he has set himself on doing.

"How does this affect our plans?" Aesan asked.

"Plan 14 remains viable, no other plans have lost relevancy." Was his answer.

We nodded, relieved that whatever the foreign seers was doing stopped. We were all angry that he gloated in victory after it had unwillingly destroyed our most likely plans to succeed, but we did not bother swearing vengeance. We did not want to actually catch his attention, our egos are far less important than getting off this damned rock.

We rested in an old tower, two stories high and built for and by things that were not Eldar. This world used to hold intelligent alien life long ago. The only signs left of it were ruins of stone for too long has passed since they had died for anything else to remain. There were 3 ruined buildings left on this world that spoke of those that lived here before and not even echoes of their psychic imprints were left to speak their tale.

The songs of nature stopped abruptly two hours before they should.

We tensed, swords and shuriken pistols ready. The maps only showed Eldar on them but one trying to keep themselves hidden could keep themselves so. We had seen individuals that could do so and marked them down.

All such individuals were accounted for, none had gone missing and none were anywhere near us.

The silence was broken by the death cries of a pack of quadrupedal birds, their death coming at the hand of some predator. We did not put our weapons down until one hour after the song of nature restarted, each of us resembling a statue more than a living creature for the entire time.

We avoided the area in which the hunt happened as we ran, the detour losing us minutes but none of us thought those minutes wasted.

We headed towards our target, Guraith decided to claim it. He took the front position, as I ran to the top of tree, it's green and blue leaves not rustling as I ran on its bark. I reached the position to fire from at the same time my brother decapitated his target.

Guraith's target died in a hit as those of our siblings, my six shots striking each of its eyes. Two were on its left head, the third on its right one, the other other 3 centered around his heart. I did not see those eyes as I shot the man from behind, trusting my shuriken pistols coated in poison to maintain their accuracy and penetration.

None of my siblings shot to correct any mistakes, all six shuriken hit.

I jumped from tree to tree, my jumps enhanced by psychic might and landing softened by the same. In six jumps I could see my siblings in formation, by the seventh I had reached it. The ninth placed me in it.

I took the left side.

"Second stratagem is in effect, all my instincts are telling me its necessary." Our brother Aesan sent to each of us.

None of us questioned it.

Our sister Marsa was the best at bladework and physical combat between us. Guraith the seer capable of seeing patterns we couldn't. I myself was the best at killing with psykery among us but the second stratagem required that I abstain from doing so.

None questioned our brother, for he had the best instincts of us all. If he said something needed to happen then that would mean we would die if it didn't, even if he could not articulate why.

The formation shifted, I took the back position.

Somehow I knew this was the fault of the foreign seer. I imagined his face as I stabbed him, my siblings shuriken pistols peeling his skin from muscle and muscle from bone and bone from marrow as I stabbed him one hundred times in each organ. His face looked like that of mine, his words mocking me even in their agony fueled by my sword.

I let go of my hatred for him, it would not help us.

We headed towards the city. Four targets still needed killing.