Chapter 76:

Chapter 76: Revenge loosens the tongue and banishes all restraint and fear.




All species of the Great Wheel assign the position in society of their members through various means.

Some do so by birth, where one's position is determined at birth by factors outside of your control and sometimes, depending on the species, by factors that are influenced by the decisions of the newborn, while others determine their position in life through a more industrial way where one's position is determined by what factory calling itself an institution of learning you have gone through.

No species does it quite the same, and no species has the same uniform system throughout their society but Assignment by Birth or by Conveyor Belt are the two primary means an individual of any species is assigned a position in life, as species either pick one of them or mix them with another or each other.

Eldar, at least Imperial Eldar, do not operate by any of that, except perhaps in rare occasions where Assignment by Birth has managed to infiltrate society, but those situations are rare and mostly consigned to the princes and princesses and very rarely the priesthoods. What we operate by is Assignment by Achievement.

Your official position or occupation is determined by a set of achievements you have accomplished throughout your life and while your exact rank within it depends largely on your fellows of the same occupation, what you want to be depends solely on what you do.

I am a diplomat, a medicine maker, a priest, a soul-healer and a logistics officer by deed and ritual and by my own actions.

I am officially a diplomat for managing to get another species to agree to be the vassals of the pantheon. I am a medicine maker, which is different from a healer, by dint of developing an entirely new type of medicine for the soul of eldar that operates by the principles of Khaine as opposed to those of Isha, even if medicine that operates on Murder Logic was not unheard of before I came around. I am also a priest, a senior priest at that, for managing to get my Younger Sibling's loyalty as they too became junior priests on their first day of adulthood and in doing so fully finished my own ritual of entry into the priesthood.

Even my position as a logistics officer was earned and not just given to me even, for I have earned it in full by creating the logistical apparatus of a Queen's campaign for the conquest of her birth world and if there is a single better way to earn that position in full I do not know of it. Serving as one of the four individuals that have created the logistics system that serve a Queen of the Eldar and her armed forces is the textbook definition of a logistics officer after all.

My latest title is now soul-healer, which is by far the most difficult to get, especially as I have gained mastery of it. Master Soul-Healers require two requirements, beyond the ability to heal a soul, to earn their mastery, for the Pantheon requires it of all of us to freely heal our people of whatever ails them when they ask it of us and the pantheon have been asking us to heal them for a very long time from the scars left on them by the War in Heaven. The requirements for mastery are simple in theory, but beyond complicated in application and they are to mix the Nurture-Logic of Isha with the Murder-Logic of Khaine and obtain the opposite result of what each would normally achieve while meaning well to your patients.

The first requirement is the one that is normally the easiest, yet to me was the most difficult, and it was to Nurture someone to the best of my ability, to wish them well, to love them and care for them and their well being and make sure that my nurturing will end in their deaths. I achieved it by doing it to my past self, where I did my best to teach my former eldar self how to survive my Tomb and fully kill me and if he were to have followed all of my training exactly as I laid it out to him then he would have had a decent chance of success. He didn't do so fully and could not adapt properly to his final test and thus died for it, but I did do my part and thus earned one half of my mastery in soul-healing.

The second requirement, which I completed first was to use the Murder-Logic of Khaine to heal somebody until they were more than they were before I started my treatment, which is something most healers struggle with. They do so because Khaine does not leave one as More than they were before they met him but I managed it with ease when I healed my First Daughter and my son in law of their lack of pride and left them whole when they have come to me broken and I have healed them solely by using Khaine's Villainous principles and acting like a villain with such skill I also walked as Khaine.

And now I am a healer and priest and due to being any of those two I am now to operate under the first Law ever created by the Pantheon, the one Law that defines the start of the Eldar legal tradition as distinct from that of the Old Ones.

'All Eldar are to be free of all that ails them, and none may ask of us a price for it, for health and the joy it provides belongs to us all.' was a very condensed form of it, but it was where our legal tradition came from and unlike all other Divine Laws, this was widely known in the Empire.

Laws in the Empire, divine laws at least, are not widely known except to the most deranged of Scholars, for we did not bother with things such as sanity when writing them and trying to understand our legal system is the same as trying to understand creatures from beyond our time and space, for it was made by such creatures. Even I just settled for memorizing the laws and a few of their interactions, but understanding it in its entirety? I am too scared to try that again as all I have from the last attempt is a letter from my future self telling me that if I try that again he is putting a lasbolt through our heads.

All I did was open a lawbook and the letter was there, waiting for me and signed by myself and had my future self threatening to kill himself and me.

Needless to say I swore to myself that I will do my best not to involve myself in legal matters if I can help it, but now the Craftworlders have made a claim that worlds of the Empire have broken the first Law and every single priesthood is to investigate these claims, for the Divine do not appreciate the fact our people may have started withholding healing from one another.

Now if only the craftworlders did not make my duties more difficult than they needed to be. I have come to this craftworld to check on their health and see what is wrong with them as a whole and the fools run from me as fast as their feet could carry them.

My 296th patient since coming to this ship had just left my healing ward and like all the others refused to let me check if his mind consciously registers song and ran after I had finished removing a particularly well hidden Parasite of Despair from his soul.

My legal investigation was going well at least, for 189 individuals have come to me with allegations of Healers withholding healing and the vast, vast majority of them were the craftworlders not asking right and being scammed for it, or the healing offered being free and the healers requested a price afterwards made it seem like they asked for payment for the healing when they really requested a bribe to let them leave with their lives.

It is incredibly scummy behavior, especially as one such individuals was a priest and she will pay for dishonoring our profession like that but it is not illegal by Divine Law. It doesn't change the fact that the priesthood will contact local authorities and inform them that that priesthoods are displeased by the behavior and ask if this is not illegal by local laws and, even if it isn't, it is likely the fools will be punished still.

The priesthood of Hoeth likes Anaen and her children and we are willing to take a bit of revenge on their behalf which should reduce the magnitude at which craftworlders are being scammed and ripped off in the future.

Eight cases, a number that smelt too much of trickery to be a coincidence, were potentially worth investigating further, but none were definitive. Those cases were of Princes of various worlds forbidding Maton from interacting with Eldar souls, and that included healing and that was a complicated tangle of Nonsense, as from the looks of it the Princes meant well, for they ordered everything not an Eldar to never interact with an Eldar Soul as they viewed such things as harmful for them. Princes are meant to look after their people but this sort of thing also breaks the First Law and I am not getting involved in those deliberations.

I'll leave solving that legal nonsense to the priests of Asuryan and Cegorach, and I'll just continue writing my notes to give to whoever comes for them to help build up the legal cases. If they wanted to play with the laws then they can go do so where I cannot see them as I am not touching anything even related to legality ever again.

A new individual came through the sliding door to my healing ward with a barely imperceptible swish of air.

If there was a more generic way to describe an eldar young man, the man before me did a very good job of making me look for it. He was an average looking man, of average Eldar height with black hair and eyes and a distinct lack of any way to visually identify him as jumping out in a crowd. He was also dressed in black civilian robes too. He was so nondescript as far as our people went that it was eye catching, like seeing a perfect sphere near other roughly spherical objects.

"It is rare to see a Follower of Hoec using a door of all things." I remarked airily.

The man was even blessed by Hoec, twice at that too, and it was very difficult to think of him as anything but that. Or perhaps he is one of Cegorach's? They do love to disguise themselves but that seems unlikely. He is far too sane looking for a Follower of Cegorach with two Divine Blessings and not even them used doors if they could help it.

I am considered quite radical among the priesthood for teaching my siblings to use doors as they are meant to and insisting my children use them too, for doors are good for civilization and they are very fun to use when none expects you to use them.

"It is holy one, which makes it stranger for I see none of them here with us, unless you yourself happens to be one of them." The man replied smoothly with a glint in his eyes.

I've been tricked it seems, or been the butt of a joke the man plays on everyone else. I'll accept this bit of trickery with grace, for it is the first bit of trickery I've had heaped on me since coming here and it is good for the soul.

"I most certainly am not, do come in properly young man and sit on the bed. I would assume you are here for healing then?" I replied kindly.

The man did as I asked and I thought of how to get this man to agree to my request of checking his soul properly. I have been trying to get people to agree to it, but all run and do not answer my requests or just refuse which has gotten tiresome.

The man did not respond but was instead considering his next words and I decided to continue on and pretend to ignorance at his own indecisiveness.

"Could you tell me the symptoms of what ails you then?" I continued as he sat down and made himself comfortable.

"I am not ill, but here to speak of the other topic you are interested in. I would still like a consultation however just to make sure all is fine." He replied.

How fortunate, another case to look over. At least this man also wants a consultation which means I can make him pay for it. Giving a healthy man a consultation is not healing after all, so I can charge for it if I want.

"Naturally, I'll listen to your claims after the consultation and you can pay for them after, and you tell me why do your people keep on running from me when I try to make my final checks. Now please bare your soul open to me." I replied kindly.

I could have probably asked him to agree to the check itself but I decided not to push it, for once I knew where the problem is I can correct it with my next patient and there's no reason to rush.

He did as I asked with no words and I looked over his soul.

His soul bore the scars of generational Hate but they were something he has taken upon himself as a mission of his bloodline to whoever has wronged them. I did a few cuts with my swords and cauterized the areas around them, for the soul was being twisted slightly in ways the man most likely did not mean to and it was easy to heal them without removing the scars of his Conviction.

Beyond that the man was perfectly healthy and was planning for revenge and happy that he has grown closer to it. I am most likely not his target as I have never met the man before, so this meant that his revenge was directed at whoever he wished to tell me has broken Divine Law.

"And done, you are nominally healthy, but I will warn you that your hate is twisting you into something you will not approve of. I have not touched it and just cut some of the twisted parts and nurtured them back to health but I suggest you to find a way to let go of it." I told him.

He was strangely silent as I worked and spoke but nodded at my words and retracted his soul.

"I thank you healer, but I am afraid I will have to wait until I can let go of it, and hopefully you will help me with it." He answered blandly.

Fair enough. I pulled out one of my bottle of red liquid and handed one to him, the man was thirsty.

"Thank you for the offer, but I would rather not partake in blood." The man said with a wince.

"It's not blood, it's Young-nourishing liquid and it's red because I prefer the color to the normal white and I don't drink blood as I dislike the taste and texture of it." I informed him.

Did people think I drink blood? What's next they'll think I drink baby blood? I put the liquid in the same bottles one would feed to a child because they are meant to calm me down and whoever else I give them to, not because they are filled with baby blood.

"I… I'll have some then. I'll probably also tell everyone you are not drinking baby blood too." He muttered.

He took the bottle and drank some and acted surprised that I said the truth and I shook my head. Craftworlders truly have some strange ideas in their heads. I don't drink blood and even I know blood is only good from the source and if you want to debase yourself to drinking baby blood you have to drink it from a baby.

"Is this why the people are so scared of me when I ask them to let me do some of my checks?" I asked as he finished drinking and took the bottle and put it in my bag.

He winced at my words and I did not understand why. I have been perfectly amiable since coming here and this craftworld knows I am in their debt for letting me heal them, so they should be more confident, yet all of them are quite scared of me specifically.

They are not scared of my Younger Sister, for I can feel them being quite happy with her in their song as the Sunheart will serve as fuel for the growth of the craftworld to accommodate new people more easily.

"Yes, partially at least, they are also quite scared of whatever someone that drinks baby blood would consider taboo and what it might do to them." He replied with uncertainty.

I sighed at his words and wished to say I was surprised but I am not, I am just annoyed with the misunderstandings. I have not said a lie or tried to mislead the fools and yet they were still mislead by their own fear.

"It's really not that serious, I am just checking your spiritual senses to see if everything works properly by inundating them with sensation. It is no different than giving you some smelling salts or putting a strong light close to your eyes for a few seconds to check the reaction and while your reactions might be embarrassing to yourself and a bit amusing to me, my primary goal is just to check to see if you are healthy." I replied tiredly.

The cowardice of the craftworlders was getting tiring and them running when I am trying to help them was not helping my mood.

"There are multiple senses to the soul?" He asked with confusion apparent in his voice and body language.

The question was an ignorant one, but I am now used to ignorance from craftworlders on matters they should know. A young man not knowing much about our souls is unfortunately normal in comparison to the other holes in their knowledge I found, but if I start hearing healers ask the same things I am going to make a scene. This is something so obvious I shouldn't have to explain it, but here I am explaining to someone that they can use more than their eyes to detect certain things.

I've had to reveal that I have familial connections with royalty to avoid them acting as if I don't know what I am doing. If I did that and they knew not that the soul had different senses I'll lose it for wasting that trump card on morons.

"Yes, similar to how you body has the senses of sight, smell, touch, heat and so on, so does your soul have different senses, like the sense of the past, emotions, thoughts, intent and so on. All I want is to check that you are registering everything properly because your people's actions are suggesting to me that craftworlders suffer from some chronic illness related to spiritual senses, but my checks show everything is fine and that test is the last one I know how to do to check for any illness that could explain it." I explained slowly and carefully, as if talking to a particularly dim child.

I made sure not to mention the sense of Song in case the craftworlders were pulling some sort of con on us. All healers know our patients like hiding things from us and Eldar are the worst with it, for they sometimes manage it to their detriment and the less I reveal to them, the less they can prepare themselves for what I wish to do and the less they can hide from me.

He mulled on my words and I could feel the shadows of his mind moving as he considered how he should act.

"I would rather not be subjected to such tests, but I will after I explain to you my situation, and I will inform the others of the misunderstanding and what you wish to do." The vengeful man answered.

I sighed in relief, finally someone that sees sense.

"Excellent, please do go on young man as the allegations of your craftworld are quite serious." I said and awaited for the young man to speak.

How pretty were his eyes, so filled with determination and it made me wonder how I could give such eyes to the rest of my people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was 143 years ago when I was but a babe when my mother died. She was a Veteran of the Hidden Knives and on a mission of vengeance for both her family and home were wronged.

Our people were wronged, a warhost accompanying a merchant and Emissary of Anaen was killed while on a mission of recruitment and friendship and the man was sent back as merely a head in a jar that was still cognizant of his misery and fate. To take him out of the jar was to kill him, to keep him there a fate worse than death and the only reason he was not killed was due to the Laws of Drael Malcorvin, Prince of Shadows and self-appointed Shadow Emperor of the World of Shifting Stars.

It is his world that has killed an Emissary that came in friendship and Anaen and its children have decided that Mercy would be granted, a message would be sent to the court of the Self-Appointed Shadow Emperor and use his self appointed titles with no derision and inform him that a Slight has been done by one of his Servants on Anaen and its children and that they would seek as recompense merely the head of the one that sought to go around his edicts and their spirit by putting an emissary in a fate worse than death he only escaped from through suicide.

The Emissary to his Shadowy Eminence was received and welcomed and granted leave to Anaen to do as they will and that he will not offer protection to any of the parties in our spat. We thanked him with tribute of silks and gems from a thousand worlds that held within them the secrets of some fools that yet foiled his designs on some worlds at the edge of his domain and left in peace, but now it was up to Anaen to seek revenge.

It was up to the Sister of the Emissary to seek revenge now and so she took the best Assassins of Anaen to ensure its vengeance was swift and merciless and that the head of the woman who killed her brother will be interred in the same prison she has placed her brother into and be delivered to his widow to keep her company and make the widows dreams sweet with her screams.

With her went her husband who was a Master of the Hunt and the three other best Masters of Hidden Knives of Anaen and thus the hunt began.

On the first day the team of five reached the World of Shifting Stars in all it's Majestic Beauty. Each building was a star of glittering diamond in the sky that glinted with the Avarice of its Shadowy Master and each were held near one another by Gravitic Streams that created an intricate network of sky roads that spanned an entire world.

On the second day the city of Sapphires was reached and there it's treacherous Lord rested in fine silks and the screams of those he found ugly but it was not the vain Lord that was their target, but his third Wife who killed the Emissary of Anaen.

For six days and seven nights did the five look for the woman and the Gods smiled on them for their prey left her home to visit her own mother and those that wished her ill rejoiced at their fortune.

In her Bone Chariot she traveled protected by thirty guards and one hundred servants and most of them died in minutes as the Chariot fell from the Heavens, with but a handful of guards and their despicable lady surviving the crash.

The five warriors tried to activate their Shadow-Fields but the Emperor of Shadows held his bargain and offered no protection to any of the involved parties and as the warriors were beffudled at their misfortunes the Assassins struck.

Five guards died in five heartbeats but at a heavy cost, for only two Assassins yet lived after the quick confrontation as the Treacherous Lady Screamed in horror and pain at the fate she has put many others into, but only the Master of the Hunt was still alive and well, for all others except his wife had died, and his wife was close to breathing her last.

'Leave me here my love.' She whispered.

She pleaded with her husband to let her be for she would not survive the road home, but he refused her request for the first time and took her to the City of Emeralds for they were close to it and she still had a chance at life. And so the Master of the Hunt carried his love and his prey to what they perceived as safety and as the gods would have they had met a Maton which they begged for healing and yet it ignored them, and so the husband cried as he continued to look for help, but none would help them.

As his wife was breathing her last he went to his last hope, a flesh sculptor of green skin and 14 eyes, for all flesh sculptors are healers too, and while their prices are dark and terrible they had never not healed them in the past and to grief stricken husband any price was worth saving his wife.

The healer looked at the pitiful man and his barely breathing wife scoffed and said.

"I have an important appointment and do not have the time to deal with vagrants. Do you not hear that the Shadow Prince has rescinded his protection on the ruling families of this world? Now the nobles of all cities demand the finest protection and healers to attend to them at once!" He said as he kicked the man down as he held his wife in his arms.

The woman died before she reached the ground and the Master of the Hunt mourned and his heart shattered beneath duty to his home and vengeance, but Duty won and he burned the corpse of his wife and headed home with his prey so that her screams may soothe the aches of his family and they continue to do so even now."

I said as I finished bearing my soul and my family's story of vengeance to the Imperial Soul-Healer that had come to our home.

During the story I could feel his eyes turn from their false softness hiding a Murderous Soul to eyes more appropriate of that of someone that dreamed of Carnage and despair and how those eyes looked down on me as I laid in the bed he provided for me.

"The damned creatures continue to prove more trouble than they are worth." A man spoke but yet it spoke not as man but as Divine.

A frail Old Man dressed in blue and white robes and covered in scars looked to the sky where his kin looked down upon him in disapproval. He was once the Veil of Ignorance that Spoke through Murder but as the story progressed he turned into the The Revelation of Ignorance as done through Murder as the knowledge of what just happened turned Divine Mockery into Divine Wisdom. They judged him, they judged me and they judged my story and they found it infuriating to listen to and the verdict was reached and the verdict was guilty!

I cried in tears of blood and relief at the sight and knew that my family would have its revenge.

The connection broke, the priest looked into my eyes and spoke words I did not remember anymore.

"What… what happened?" I asked.

I was telling the story and now I felt something wet around my eyes? I put my hand around my face and saw a strange black liquid on it. The priest cleaned them off me with his song and then he spoke.

"Please do not try to do what you just did before or remember it, for you saw more than you should have and your mind reeled from it. Also you have my condolences for the fate of your mother and uncle and I would like you to know at least that you were right in your statement that the Flesh Sculptor did break Divine Law. Please rest for now and come back tomorrow once you are rested for me to do my final checks as you are not in a good head space to do anything but rest." He said as he spoke softly.

"I am fine!" I protested vehemently.

He looked at me as if I was an unruly child and I recalled the instructions of the seers for each individual that wished to see the healer.

'Do not even think of names while in his presence, for priests take names for them to use as they please. Do not provoke them to action, for they will act either to your benefit or detriments and they'll justify which is which afterwards and most importantly if they give you something that might sound like an order follow it.' The seer said to me and a wide audience.

"You were told what to do to avoid tragedy from befalling yourself and your loved ones and still do not do so, why?" He asked perplexed.

I thought about, why did I not take the chance to run? The response came before I could even think about it.

"I don't know, all I know is that I cannot leave until I do as I said I will." I answered confused.

While the man may not be as frightening in person as the rest of the craftworld believed him to be, the seers were clear in the fact the man is dangerous and I would have taken any chance I could to run normally, but I didn't.

I did not feel bad or scared about it, it felt normal, expected even and that made me fear more than anything, for I know my feelings and I know what I should be feeling and yet I felt it not.

"Bare your soul to me young man, I need to make sure of something and I'll do my checks once everything is well!" He barked in the cadence of thunder.

I silently obeyed and bared my soul to him once again and I could feel the dozens of blades once again dancing across my soul as they sought things to cut, but unlike before they did not cut anything.

His voice was tired and filled with gravel as he spoke.

"The Divine have tipped the scales it seems. You are well, but it seems they have decided that I have waited enough to find out what is wrong and do not worry, for what you felt was the Divine asking you to stay and you are fine for now." He told me after minutes of silence.

"That's… good?" I asked uncertain.

It is difficult to keep to your courage and conviction in front of the Divine, especially when they should not be speaking to you and yet they did.

"Depends on your definition I would assume, but the Divine will pay you handsomely in Revenge for agreeing to being Proactive at least. I would suggest you that as soon as you get the chance to speak to your family and tell them that you have been chosen to Avenge your family's and craftworlds slight. By as soon as possible I mean running to them before the priests of Cegorach take you when you're not paying attention as they love taking people from their homes when nobody is looking." He answered, his voice turning soft again.

I did not wish to leave my family out of nowhere but the flames of Revenge burned in my breast and I promised myself I would do just that.

"What tests do you want to make now?" I asked.

He wished to test my spiritual senses but I knew not which he wished to test as I doubt it would be all of them, whoever many there were.

"Just relax, you will notice it as I make them, but I can assure you none of them will harm you."

I did as he asked and it wasn't long until I felt it, time.

I had become obscenely aware of the passing of time from one moment stretching to infinity in both it's length and shortness. It was too much to comprehend, to much to care for and I desperately tried to perceive something else.

Time was fluid, time was static, it was infinitely large and too small to perceive at the same time and I no longer had a frame of reference for it.

"Focus on your heartbeat, that's why it is there." He instructed and I did as he said without thought, only emotion

My heartbeat became the island in the storm, the constant everything else was based upon and infinity was gone and I was slick with sweat and tears.

"Excellent, your senses of time are normal, please take a short break, I will be conducting my next test once you recovered, we have three more I wish to do." The voice sounded like thunder across the Empyrean and I was back into my body fully.

My breath was ragged and I did not trust myself to speak, but a crystal bottle of water appeared close to my face and I took it immediately and drank it.

"That was the sense of time?" I asked as I calmed myself down.

"Partially, time is three senses known as Past, Present and Future. What you felt was the present and I won't be testing the other two as they are things for seers and farseers to bother with and I would rather not touch them lest I become one." He replied simply.

I could feel that he did not like the second group the most of all, but the idea that he could become any of them was one he found the most distasteful.

"Why would you wish not to become a seer or farseer?" I asked curiously.

Few people wish to become as such, but that is more due to the difficulty of being such compared to what the position grants you, but my instincts told me that was not it.

"Seers are perfectly respectable individuals and farseers are treacherous animals one should shoot at the first opportunity given to you. My mind operates too much like that of a farseer and if I start thinking in different time dimensions like they can then I too will become an amoral animal that cares for nothing but his own goals." He replied with derision.

I remained silent, for this one he first time the priest acted like anything besides a kind old man and healer looking after children. I knew danger when it was close and all of my instincts were telling me that I was to tread carefully next.

"I think I am ready for the next one." I said after a few minutes of silence and after the danger abated.

His face returned to that of an elder indulging a child and I hid a shiver as his expression tried to remind me of something I was told to forget for my own good.

"Excellent, please bare your soul to me again young avenger, for I have changed my mind as this will be the last one, for you are in a hurry. The Troupes of Cegorach dance in the shadows and they have come for you. I would suggest you that after this test you start running and say your goodbyes." He said kindly and I did what he told me.

My soul bloomed once more and for the first time in my life I realized that I could hear, and it was so beautiful and terrible, for I always could hear it but never noticed it.

"You can Hear then you fools." A distant voice said but I ignored it.

The Song of my people filled me and it was so wonderful and terrible and beyond anything one could and should hear and yet it was mine, it was mine, it was mine, it was.

It was gone.

"No!" I shouted.

Where is it?

Where is the song?

Where are my people?

Where am I?

"Stop!" The voice commanded and my mind stopped spiraling.

My mind reeled and chaos and despair turned back into order and the sigh of the soul-healer echoed through the small room.

"You fools, what have you done to yourselves?"