Interlude Three:

Interlude three

I have lived for many, many years, so many that I thought I have seen most of what my position would allow me. I have seen wise men brought low, fools rise beyond what they should have, civilizations rise and fall and wars that have killed stars.

Many are the things I have seen and few of them have truly surprised me, but the one that has surprised me the most was a young madman called Bessar Aggail.

He had come to my world little more than a vagrant and guest in one of the houses I graciously leave to travelers to rest in and in a year left as the Grandmaster of an Official Recognized Art that gods only know how he can call medicine with a straight face, the brother of one of my dear friends and more.

He walked as Khaine and his murderlust became so great that Khaine, for the first time I have ever been able to find, counseled restraint. His own apprentice and son-in-law now fortifies my world and that of my allies with the obscenity both men call medicine that strips the soul from an Eldar and his own daughter has built and now controls a ship which can fight on par with those of the Armada and had gotten me and my world to join his side in the newly brewing War in Heaven between the Adherents of the New Divine and those of Cegorach for the crib of Divinity.

And the worst part of it? The one part that makes all of this so unimaginably strange? I enjoy it and wish he would have done more, for life has not been this fun since I was a young girl.

My world which once was gripped with fear and people fortifying their homes with the willingness to die in them if they have to now openly talk about leaving them to go on adventure, the homeless and vagrants no longer leave the world in fear but come towards it in search of adventure and I keep on calling more and more of them to join for a very simple reason.

Eldar will not leave their homes when danger approaches them no matter what, for the more fearful we become the more protective of our homes we become so if one wishes to make an Eldar leave their home then they must make us want to, to crave it like we crave air and the best way to do that is a goal, a cause or something we can put ourselves behind and join eagerly and do so knowing that our homes and families are safe.

The priesthoods of Hoeth and Cegorach offered us the ability to comfortably leave our homes but still stay in the Empire by calling the New Divine a parasite and its worshipers vermin to be exterminated and that if we kill enough of them then we will be safe.

It is unlikely for us to ever manage to kill enough to make a difference, for our efforts to do so more than anything make us comfortable as Doom approached us but it didn't matter. Just by giving us a way to deal with our Doom it revitalized my world and now billions of Eldar fly under my banner to burn the cultist worlds and hunt down the Vermin Priests of the New Divine.

"It is still not enough my love." My husband observed miserably from his seat at the table.

We and our advisors have been going over the numbers available to us and the tides were looking bleak.

In other parts of the Empire one could build ships in days but my world despite its large population is not that rich nor am I so wealthy as to attract the services of bonesingers capable of such feats and my world is the greatest of those that joined the Wild Hunt. Each void-ship needs to be custom made for the pilot in question, the number of bonesingers capable of building such a ship is small and the number of people willing to learn was even smaller and those that did wish to learn rarely stayed to actually do so.

Aisse Gearra who is the First Daughter of Bessar Aggail was the first shipwright that officially entered my service in 500 years, as all others merely fulfilled the terms of their apprenticeship and left.

There were seventy shipwrights on a planet of 2 billions that swore allegiance to my world and of those I controlled sixty-two of them with the other eight being in the service of other nobles. All 800 other shipwrights were primarily here to fulfill the terms of their apprenticeship and when their 200 years of service would end so would they too leave and most of them would leave in five decades at most.

"Looking to the past does paint a bleak future my husband, but it is but a part of the tapestry of the future, for the priests of Cegorach's fallen father continue to provide us with solutions to problems we notice too late to fix them ourselves." I replied serenely.

The twelve beings I call advisors turned from their crystals and papers to me as I uttered those words as they sensed like I did a new bout of Bessaric Nonsense, for Bessar Agail had engineered the perfect stage for the princes and princesses of the Empire to act upon when he had turned the Unborn Creature against its priests which was a continuation of his previous act.

For millennia have the priests, seers and doomsayers of the Eldar sang and cried of our Doom and how we should be running and all mocked and ignored them for it, for those that believed them would not abandon their homes and those that didn't saw no reason to abandon the comfortable life in the Empire to join the exodites or worse the craftworlders.

After being told the truth the way the Priests of Hoeth knew it, a plan formed in my mind and as is my birthright I proceeded to seize the day as is the right of all princess and princesses and declared to the Empire that I do not recognize the New Divine as True, that I consider it a changeling that stole the rightful place of Cegorach to be born and that to kill it we must kill both it and all of its vermin priests and followers to defeat our Doom.

All of the priesthoods decried my words as foolish and I decried them as cowards that would run from our destiny when it is our birthright to cut it down and in doing so hundreds of worlds joined my banner. Ships started being built en-masse, warriors started to train and hunt down the vermin and our worlds felt once again safe and when Eldar feel that their worlds and homes are safe and that there are enemies to kill they will go on Grand Adventures and Campaigns to hunt them down.

And so, many Eldar mocked the priests for their cowardice and took to the stars in search of adventure and purpose, and for that infrastructure needed to be made to service the millions of warriors seeking Adventure and a purpose across the stars.

"How my love?" My most beautiful husband asked.

My advisors song told me that they doubted me as always for such is their duty, but never my husband, for he always believed in me and my oath to him that I will never lie to him.

Large Warhosts of warriors went to the stars and abandoned their worlds in search for things to kill and each of those warhosts would gain resistance to the strange abilities of the Vermin Priests. Each of those ships would be capable of handling large amounts of bodies and help in the evacuation of the worlds that bear the Banners of the White Tower and the Mask of Mockery, but the numbers do not work for a single reason.

We have nowhere to put them in and not enough room to take most of the population in one trip as it is unlikely the ships to leave during our Doom will get a second trip and so we are left with the dark realization that when our doom comes in a century at the very latest, only a tenth of those sworn to my banner will be able to join us.

"Bessar Aggail has gotten married to two Sirens, one of which has been officially recognized as a Queen of our People, but whose world is poor and empty. I intend to swear myself to her and put my support behind one of her projects started by Bessar Agail called the Cult of Strife and its mission of freeing all Eldar slaves from bondage as well as those of any species from the Great Wheel that wishes to join it.

From what I have foreseen, it's Eldar founders have already gotten a human world under the vassalage of a Periphery Lady to join its cause one with a rather strange name at that too. The World of 'Hexas 3' will serve as an excellent stop and logistics station for this cult and for those that will wish to join the world of my new liege." I informed them much to their shock.

My advisors knew how I thought by now and realized my plan before I even finished giving them the introduction.

A cause to fight the New Divine is all fine and good, but it does not take my people to safety. Now, one that also takes them outside of the Empire? That will give everyone an excuse to leave and not be called fools or cowards for it, for what greater purpose could an Eldar have than serve the whims of Royalty and their strange projects. And what better way to do so than take our homes and move near her?

Also, serving a new queen is hardly as difficult as one would think, especially as I have enough familial connections to put her apathy towards bipedal Eldar away and if that is not enough, growing a snake tail is hardly a deal breaker. I'll look just as beautiful with legs or a sea-snake's tail so it doesn't matter which I choose, for I know my husband will love me regardless.

"That is indeed wonderful news my love, but how can we get in touch with the new Queen? We will need to coordinate our efforts and industries to be able to service both causes and handle the logistics adjacent to each." My husband responded softly for his heart was as full of love for me as mine was for him.

My advisors sighed, for they knew they could not find a flaw in my reasoning beyond that issue and it knew that I already had an answer for it.

"That is easy enough my dear, Bessar Agail's concubines now rest at the House of Gua Bis. Aisse Gearra will take them and an emissary of mine to their husband and father swear allegiance in our name and then our realms will exchange knowledge and apprentices to see our realms bloom, for our New Queen has many eldar in dire need of a proper education and I need them to build me ships and prepare staging grounds for our people's plans."

Indeed, swearing myself to the new Queen solved most of the logistical problems I faced and also solved a most important problem that I as a princess have. I cannot join my warriors on the battlefield in scouring the Vermin from the Great Wheel, for I need to keep the squabbling clans of disparate worlds from ruining things as well as continuing our preparations for the Evacuation. But with a queen to take charge of the movement I created, all I needed was give her this pile of nonsense to go deal with while I joined my husband to dance on the battlefield.

Truly, our royalty provides us all that we could ever need or want and our priests help them with their nonsense to make our lives so much more fulfilling.

'I wonder, will I need to turn my hair blonde again? Our new queen does seem to prefer it.' I sang to my husband and he hummed in amusement back at me.

I do not know much of Siren customs but I saw their noble ladies turning their hair the same shade of gold as their queen. I will probably have to do so myself too, but that will depend on my husband's answer to my question. It would not do to change myself in ways he does not find appealing, the same way he wouldn't do the same.

'You would look lovely with it and any color would be honored to be chosen as yours my love.' My husband sang back.

He too would look so dashing with blonde hair, even if his current black hair looked good on him too.

My advisors and their blank ghost masks cried now and started gesticulating wildly as they cried at their poor fortune. Cries of 'Why does she even need us?', 'Damn you Bessar Agail!' and 'That uncle of our is going to kill us from overwork' and more echoed in my room now and were accompanied by the sounds of laughter, for both my husband and I laughed at the antics of the Priests of Cegorach.

I could never understand why so many feared them, for the fools and their ways were more hilarious than scary to my eyes. The Vermin disagreed, but they were vermin and should die for it like the rest of their kin for their deaths bring joy and laughter to our people. I could already hear the cheers of my people, for their wise princess had found them even more prey and safe harbors to hunt them from.

I can already imagine myself dancing with my handsome husband among the screams of vermin.

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"38889, 38890, 38891, 38892" The eldar droned on in perfect high gothic as he walked east.

We have gone past what was once the western border between the Imperium and the Archaemid Empire and were now going east of a random patch of land the Eldar picked to start counting from. Each of his steps increased the counter to some unknown number as the procession of one thousand warriors walked behind him on the windswept dunes of wasteland that was once an ocean.

Everyone knew now not to interrupt him, for the last time we did so he was at 20931 and he told the entire procession to move back to where they started and so we did.

This was to be payment for the agreement the Eldar strong armed us into accepting as payment for their 'assistance' and treaties to safeguard the Unification of my people.

'We are approaching a cliff.' I informed my retinue as my voice boomed across each of their minds.

It was not a human voice, it was the voice of might, of burning light and a glorious future and it was distinctly inhuman and singular.

I hated this new form, a being of metal, titanic in size and lacking even the few human elements of my Golden Warlord persona. Instead of a man larger than life, the Eldar convinced Malcador and I with the vision of the future said persona would create that It would be better to choose another.

I stand now at 10 meters in height, faceless and dressed in golden panoply of death, my head an Aura of Golden Might devoid of all but the barest hints of humanity.

"And 40.000. We are here." The Eldar proclaimed with joy thick in his voice.

We had reached the edge of what was once the Continental Shelf of the Indoy Ocean.

"This makes for a poor payment Eldar." I informed him

This area was empty and as I swept the area with my senses I could feel nothing around us but sand, rock and the echoes of a bygone era and tears.

The Eldar turned towards me and the host of ten thousand Thunder Warriors that stood behind me. They were saner than they should have been, as the influence of the Eldar Priest kept their Mental Instability from manifesting. Their bodies were still breaking ever so slowly, but for as long as they stood in his vicinity the warriors which even now are conquering the Cradle of Humanity will be fully aware of all that they are and is happening to them and will not succumb to their Murderous Impulses.

The man was dressed in white armor and dark robes emblazoned with a white tower and an Eldar rune I have never seen before meeting him and that represented one of his dead gods.

"Oh glorious Golden Overlord of Man, if the payment was easy to find then others would have found it, for it has stood hidden here for longer than humanity has mastered flight." The creature boastfully said and started to dance.

The dance was masterful in its choreography as he started to dance around my warhost of scrap armored warriors and my senses of danger informed me of the order I must give.

"Remain inside the area of the dance." I ordered.

Assents, shouts, whispers and grunts met me and I smiled even if none could tell. Flawed, my warriors might be but unlike all of my other creations they are still undeniably human in spirit and I loved them deeply for it.

On the first circuit, the Empyrean stirred and what was once hidden revealed itself and an empty stretch of wasteland turned a metallic black and the history of the facility opened to me. It is human, impossibly so and yet it has stood here since… since the day before my birth, appearing here from the moment my own mother went into labour.

"Forty-thousand steps from the exact location of my birth." I observed.

I believed it was a coincidence that the Eldar had picked a location so close to what was once my cradle but I now knew this was not the case. The Eldar had made this specifically for me. My men started muttering as to what my words could mean but I ignored them for now as I considered the dancing Eldar.

I was not amused or touched, I was wary of this 'payment' now.

This structure was impossible, for each of its parts were built in wildly different locations and times. Some were built in the future, some in the past, some now on Terra were being built and other were built in worlds in the Solar System that did not and have never existed.

It showed a scale and skill at temporal manipulation that humanity had never possessed.

The Eldar continued its third circuit around the gathered warhost as the facility became real before our very eyes. We were standing on a patchwork elevator platform similar to those connecting different hive floors. On the fifth circuit music came and started to sing from the Eldar, an entire orchestra of sound that reminded all who heard it of inhuman might started to sing as the platform started to move. The sound of warrior grunts, instruments and noise.

[ISPOILER][SPOILER="Music"]

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[/SPOILER][/ISPOILER]

The Thunder Warriors nodded to the music, for it sang to their souls and I could admit to myself that it was good, and most importantly composed by a human. I do not recognize it, but I knew a human song when I heard it and this song was made with the soul of man in mind.

The platform continued its slow and smooth descent and my warrior noticed its smoothness.

'Never knew iron could move like this.' A young warrior muttered.

Not even his unpowered steel armor moved this smooth.

He was the only one that dared to speak during our descent and was also the reason for the fact we had to retrace our steps before. Karras Mittrachus was a fine warrior but his mouth was one that would always get him in trouble and his Primarch slapped his head for his insolence… again…

It won't stop it from repeating in the future, not even death will, for the man has hidden a final prank after his death with the help of some of his brothers to prank the rest of his legion one last time after death.

I naturally made sure it will go off in the unlucky case that the jester will die in battle and his legion will need a final laugh to remember him.

"It used to be common Karras, all human technology used to be this smooth and well-maintained. The current state of technology is an unique experience in the history of our species." I informed him

I do not care for their discipline, all I wish of them is to fulfill their duties and if a jester helps them do so then the jester will do so.

The dance stopped with a clap and 10001 pairs of yes turned towards the Eldar even as the Music continued around us. He stood on the outer edge of the platform now and was looking straight at me.

"Come master of ten thousand swords, your atelier awaits you." He declared

He started to walk and I joined him and the sea of warriors split before us.

"Two thousand of you are to join us, the rest are to stand guard." I ordered.

Each of them knew who will stay and who will come now, for I have given to each the order and they did as I demanded wordlessly.

The music continued as we walked through the great door. The lights turned on slowly as the music slowly turned silent as the song had reached its end and all that was left was wealth that would make a million scholars weep.

A massive cavern met me and it was filled with wonders not seen on Terra for five thousand years.

STC prints of a thousand patterns and technologies met me, a massive forge that could make all of them if fed the right materials and labs and books and dataslates that I knew were filled with all that the alien promised us and more. I could feel the STC print for the Panacea, for a thousand infantry patterns, for the old knights and for so much more.

I would have physically wept if this form allowed me, but it did not and so I was forced to pretend that the sight in front of me did not affect me.

"Do not touch anything yet, for the ritual is still not complete. It requires one final step before the security measures are shut down and if you touch the treasure before they are then this entire vault and all of its contents will disappear forever." The Eldar said.

"What step?" I asked.

I was past his games and tricks, this... this vault was everything the Imperium needed to get off the ground and save Mankind from death or a fate worse than death.

The eldar smirked and pulled out a piece of parchment and a pen from its bag and presented them to me.

"This is the official treaty between the Pantheon of the Eldar and the Imperium of Man, your Majesty. In it are all the terms we have discussed and agreed on and before you can receive the payment in full for your end of the deal, you must first sign it."

I looked over it as I psychically brought it to the burning star I pretended to be my face and read it in full. It showed all of the terms we have agreed to, all of the promises made for assistance and more, it held the consequences for breaking them. There were two documents there, one written in high gothic and one in Eldar script and both said the same thing, a treaty of friendship between Man and Eldar

Sol, the birth-star of humanity and many others were held as collateral for this deal and should I break it then those stars will be taken from their solar systems and leave thousands of worlds to fly silently in a cold universe.

I signed it and its copy without hesitation, for I knew what awaited us and even a silent death was preferable to the futures I had seen awaited us.

Around us the atelier turned fully real and I smiled as the Eldar took the copy for himself and I gingerly held my own.

A large pile of metals, circuit and liquids appeared as a second set of doors opened behind the cavern just as I finished signing and I raised a golden eyebrow. That was not part of our deal.

"A gift between friends, enough materials to fully heal the warriors you have come with and give them armor worthy of the Warrior Sons of Terra." The Eldar revealed smugly.

It was enough material for 10.000 Armiger Knights, knights whose pattern I now possessed as well as the forge to build and maintain them in.

"A mighty gift my friend." I replied warmly.

Inside however I grumbled. I would need to find a way to give back a gift of equal scale when the opportunity presented itself as It would not do for my people to think that Eldar were more generous than us.