Chapter 86:

Chapter 86: Of Divine Love few things can be said except that one must fear it.




Tribute and the offering and acceptance of tribute are a near universal concept for the advanced species of the Great Wheel, for it represents a sign of submission to a greater power but each species treats it differently.

For humans tribute is something akin to sign of surrender or bribe, where the weaker of two groups or individuals agrees to pay a set price in resources, gold, warriors, slaves, or concubines in exchange for not being attacked and in some cases even protected by the one they pay and while this part is universal, in humans the relationship carries the subtext of defeat, of a submission where there is a winner and a loser but this is far, far from the norm.

In Eldar societies tribute is not a sign of defeat, not most of the time at the very least, but it is a chain, a chain of propriety and ego that they who offer tribute put around the one they pay. For Eldar submission to a greater being comes with great difficulty and it is only possible as long as they are of our own species at that . Due to this, the offering of tribute carries something that makes sense to few other species, and that is the feeling of reciprocity.

If one offers to pay tribute to you, you will gain power over them yes, but your new vassal gets to make one demand of you if you accept it and you cannot say no to that, for that demand is proof of your dominion over them and if you fail to deliver on it then all of your vassals can and will look upon you as either poor or no longer capable of leading them.

It is in a sense similar to a human's gift but in reverse for while gifts between Eldar carry no feeling of reciprocity or debt unless exceedingly grand and uncalled for, for humans they do, while for Eldar it is the other way around.

This does not mean that with each payment they can make a demand of you, but each time they increase it noticeably of their own accord you are forced to help them with a problem they possess and they will have to pay that price in perpetuity afterwards, with few exceptions in the case of rare and almost unheard of offerings. But the first time is special however, as it defines the relationship between yourself and your vassal and it needs not technically be repeated and I quite frankly did not need or want Anaen as a vassal.

Her children have agreed to my schemes already, they have given me all that I cared for and I paid them in rituals, my own services, medicine and knowledge so that they agree to send their youth in need of tempering to the Cult of Strife and that they will take care of my son and make sure that he is useful and loved for what he can give them as he desires.

I do not need our relationship to crystallize into a properly defined master and vassal relationship, for the ambiguity of the last ritual that Anaen's children enacted on me gave me enough control over their destiny that both sides can pretend it did not happen and pursue their interests without acknowledging the fact that they dance to my tune.

I need that ambiguity to continue and remain so that the plots of the Speakers of Apocalypse can continue, for the fewer non-ambiguous relationships we enter with the Divines the easier it is for reality to forget we exist and grant the Pantheon the wiggle room it needs to decide which version of our actions serves them more to pretend actually happened and turn it into truth.

Deniable assets for Eldar does not mean hidden assets you can disavow even exist when they fail their mission, but assets that act in whatever way they choose, be it in the open or in the shadows and whose actions you can interpret in contradictory terms and you can get to choose which of those interpretation becomes truth and which does not.

On the World of Three Faces two interpretations of my actions exist, one in which I am a madman and a hack of a healer and fool that kills my patients by accident when they desperately beg for my help and whose idiocy is so potent society crumbles around me, or that of a creature of madness and despair that skirts the laws of mortals and divine with contemptuous ease so that he can kill all those he feels like and not be held responsible. And the same difference in how my actions can be interpreted applies to every single arc of my life, for each of my acts has an interpretation where I am a fool and a madman that was thought wrong as a joke by Cegorach and another where I am a Snake whose hidden knowledge shifts worlds and species to my plots and the more time passes the more indignities and plots the gods can place on me.

This is so for a simple reason, because I agreed to it, I received from my father who spoke with the same words as Khaine a mission to try and save my new people as well as my former ones if I am to provide my knowledge and madness in the service of the pantheon and at one month old I agreed to those terms and Damned myself for it to be the punching bag of every single Divine and their meddling, same as all of the other Damned that has been told the truth of who and what they were before accepting their mission.

All of us had the opportunity to say no, to have that conversation erased from our minds and the Pantheon to reincarnate us into a life we would find pleasant and all of us decided that duty to our people is worth the indignity that our failures will be mocked for all eternity.

And now Anaen wants her pound of flesh out of the juicy meat that I have become, like all of the other gods I've had the misfortune of being helped by.

"I thrive in ambiguity Lady Anaen, to accept tribute from you would be to ruin too many of my plots, what do you want in exchange for continuing to maintain the ambiguity of the relationship between myself and you?" I asked simply.

Trickery does not work as easily on the Divine when they get to talk to you and offer you gifts.

My false steel eyes looked into the glowing Sapphires of the Divinity of Home for a sliver of our people and the divinity smiled.

The seers are the most influential group in any given craftworld for a reason and that is because they are the most receptive to Divine will of the bunch and when their Craftworld needs something it is them the lesser divines manipulate into doing as they wish. She will regret this bit of trickery and her previous rudeness.

"A favor, I need to ensure that my children will be safe from what comes and I cannot rely on the Pantheon and what they pretend is love to save them." She foolishly declared.

I sighed at the words , she just had to say that. I do not know why my people and our divines continue to be this moronic.

"The gods do love us Lady Anaen, but ask for your favor." I replied tiredly.

My Younger Sister's fear came unabated, but it was easy to hide it, for she knew exactly what the moron just did and now she has a front-row seat to it.

The fool in front of me looked smug for it too.

"Your Murderous Medicine Peddlers, I wish for some of them to settle in my domain and teach my children their art to defend themselves from the Doom that comes."

I considered her words and thought whether or not to scam her or not, but ultimately decided not to. That is not the kind of man I am.

Light feather touches started to tickle senses I did not know existed as I considered my next words.

"No, for I have entrusted my art to my apprentice and to his apprentice the role to teach Craftworlders my art. What you asked for I have already arranged for, ask for something else." I replied.

The feathers grew in speed, the gods were getting impatient, but they will get what they desire in this case after I finish these negotiations.

The feathers stopped tickling and my navigator started to fear too, for she finally sensed what my sister and I have been sensing too.

The fool was taken aback, perhaps because I decided to not scam her and her children or because she just realized how favored the craftworlders are remained unsaid by either of us.

"Then I wish for you to come to my defense once when I call for you. I cannot rely on my parents for safety and so I must look out for the safety of my children, and this is the price I would have asked for my tribute as well."

It was not a light feather that touched my skin this time but five knives, Gea was getting impatient with both me and her daughter. Each of them held me like fingers would hold a small doll and despite knowing they were sharper than atoms none of them harmed me.

"Very well, I agree to this deal Lady Anaen, and in the unlikely event that I do die you may request of my descendants to assist you when you need them." I agreed blandly.

The fool looked pleased with herself.

"Thank you kind man." She replied and bowed in respect.

It was not a mocking bow, but a heartfelt and genuine one that one would give to a friend that helped them.

Words flowed out of my mouth, they came with my voice but they were not mine, for the Divine wife of the King of the Eldar Divine wished to remind her daughter of Divine Love and the fact that she and her children have always been showered in it. She could not show herself here, for the Edicts of her husband prevented her, but that mattered little. A priest of the Pantheon that served her as well as all of the Divine of the Eldar was there and he has agreed to help his family and love them and make sure that they will always know that their family loves them, always has and always will.

Priests serve the interests of our people, they help bridge the gap between mortals, between mortals and divine and between divines and now he who is as Sharp as he is Valorous will help bridge the gap between mother and daughter.

"O daughter of Asuryan, why do you scorn your parents so? Why can you not see that they do love you and your sisters so much? Was it the mocking that caused you to treat them with such scorn? Dance with me the old Dance of the Stars so that you might recall what you have forgotten." The words flowed.

Under the direction of light feather touches that tasted of an apology I tenderly took the hand of Anaen and initiated the dance and Anaen joined me.

My own chains were the chains of duty which were as heavy as a mountain and yet as light as a feather. It would cost me nothing to refuse and not dance, for Gea is the Goddess meant to coordinate the Divine as the wife and consort of their Twin Rulers and among her duties it is to instruct mortals in nothing but dance. And instructions can be followed or not and so it is with gentleness that she instructs the funny priest that thinks too much but never acts too little.

Her daughter on the other hand is not mortal and thus not only is she not protected by Asuryan's edicts, but a Divine and most importantly her daughter which was given an important duty and thinks that this means she is not loved, but this is false for the Divine love all their children be they mortal or Divine.

But they will learn what they have forgotten.

I could see the thin strings that coiled around her flesh as she danced as if possessed. We dance among her children who only see their mother dance and not the strings that bind.

There is no floor and yet our feet step in mirror, there is no gravity and yet when we jump we return on ground, there is not beginning and no end and yet the dance continues. Her sails act as feathers that cut through gravity that acts like air for it both nourishes and emboldens the movements of the dancer.

Gravitational ripples fly from her form in the shape of a rose that adorns my hull and with each step she adds up more and with a thought and a gesture guided by a different kind of feather I sent each to her children.

Sapphires burned red in anger then paled in fear when she looked into my eyes for she did not see mockery in them, she saw no pride for she saw nothing.

There was no priest to dance with, there was nothing, nothing but Divine will and the priest's smile was radiant for it.

"O daughter of the Pantheon, a favor you have sought and a favor you must return. This priest a plot he has hatched, a plot to help a new friend that our people have made, a friend called Man and requires your help, for Man always squabbles with his friends and family. With gentleness will you treat Man, with kindness will you meet him and with wisdom you will teach him." The voice of a goddess purred through that which pretended to be the vocal cords of a priest.

The dance's plane shifted now and what was once horizontal turned vertical and the vertical turned horizontal as both priest and lesser goddess danced around the children of the goddess, and the children cheered for they saw their mother dance with joy as she was bathed in divine love.

The daughter of the pantheon knew of her parents love for her and for each step guided by her mother as she glowed in the red and gold of love and around her dance her children rejoiced.

Sails flowed through gravity and left ripples of meaning and as the two dancers came apart they separated for the first time in what must have been hours, and the two dancers spun in multiple dimensions as their hands continued to speak to them in a language known not to the Pantheon, much to their amusement, but their divine parents did not hold it against them, for all children are entitled to their secrets.

Each gesture was a life, each step a decision, each of them spent dancing across space, each was choreographed, each measured by the will of a mother that loved her child and wished her well and included her in her and her peers grand design and eventually the steps of one life ended and the next one begun.

And the next one, and the next one until Anaen had lived through all of her lives and yet the dance continued for with each step, with each gesture of her hand , each nod or shake of her head and body her mother instructed her on her purpose so that she may never lose it.

As the priest and divine danced the children of the divine danced too and eventually they were corralled to dance in a spiral that formed gaps to be filled by a dancer only to disappear as each moved, and so the two dancers met again on the bed of Anaen as the two collided at great speed and used each other to bleed off their momentum and gently landed on the bed.

In-between them rested a newly born divine, a child born of the mortal flames of Man and the Divine Flames of Khaine and the priest addressed his son as the boy's Lady-mother prepared to rest.

"My son, my beautiful and respectful son, I leave you to protect your mother and siblings, I leave you to teach your mother's enemies fear and to help her and her sisters." I said I kissed him and my boy laughed for he had been gifted a purpose that he could do.

To Anaen the priest turned and whispered that which should have been obvious.

"The gods are always watching, mother of my child, to tell them that you are not loved is folly, for they love you dearly and you merely know not what that means, but fear not, for they are kind and generous, more kind and generous than even I and they will always be willing to ensure that you remember it and the lesson the dance your mother taught us. Look after my son, teach him duty, grant him the love a mother should grant to her children and teach him that both you and him are loved." I said and kissed her on her left cheek.

The woman nodded at that and hugged her child not trusting herself to speak. I've told her all I could in one of the sign languages of Man, something Gea did not know off yet, but her children had learned in their interactions, few as they were, with humanity.

Eldar and our divines are swords, we constantly sharpen each other, hide things for each other and do our best to learn each other's secrets and similar to how the Pantheon has learned to hide itself from mortals so have the Craftworlders learned to hide themselves from the Divine, but unlike the priests which have learned the ways of both, the Craftworlders have forgotten how to detect and find the divine and have forgotten what it means to be watched by them

Gea will learn, the divine always do and especially if she will try to spread the knowledge to other craftworlds but for now our conversation remained private.

Anaen on the other hand has learned now that just because the Divine and Mortals are separated it does not mean that they can't affect one another. Just like she does gently and stealthily influence the lives of her children, so does the Pantheon and while she and her siblings have gotten exceptionally good at hiding, the Pantheon is now aware of their proclivities and will act accordingly lest they forget again the truth of Divine Love.

Divine Love is free, it is endless and it knows no limit and the gods will shower you in it whether you like it or not, for they love us all and know that we love them too and unlike our love theirs is not limited by the ephemeral dreams of sanity and logic.

The Divine wished for me to accept her previous offer of vassalage to turn her into concubine and have her and my son slow me down and I looked into her eyes and found eyes that glowed the same as mine. Even as our arms embraced one another our eyes radiated a single emotion.

Priest and lesser Divine were done with the Pantheon's nonsense. Gea coordinates the Divine and she has no right to interfere in the relation between Mortal and Divine, even if the mortal was a priest and direct family to Divinity. The difference is important and to mistake one for another was Blasphemy.

The priest is a married man and he is married to royalty and to take another concubines would not serve his plans, for Anaen had given him all her becoming his concubine would grant him and it would slow him down too much, long enough for divinity to be able to set up their nonsense to trap him fully and make him dance only to their tune.

But concubinage is not the only option available for the daughter of Gea is mighty and she surely deserves marriage, for what mother does not wish to see her daughter marry to a dashing young man of excellent Divine pedigree? He has already given her a child and danced with her under the starlight so surely Marriage is the logical next step. Won't a priest follow his heart and give his children the home they deserve? One with both a father and mothers to love and raise them?

My reactor pulsated and my heartbeat was returned to me as the Divine played her hand too boldly and allowed me to exist both in Anaen's bed as our souls caressed one another and as my ship self. I have forgotten of my heartbeat now that I became a ship and the Divine pounced on my weakness.

Marriage only happens between equals, to invite another into my own or to enter into one requires the consent of all already in it, and I do not have that of my wives.

Consent of royalty which is freely given if only the priest would return home, for she dearly misses her husband and father to her children. To give such consent is not beyond the reach of royalty.

But it is beyond that of their spouses and I am married to two women and only one of them is Royalty and my second wife most certainly cannot give consent, both because of the distances involved and because Lady Anaen has made it clear that she will only consider the words of those like her as words and my second wife Cuhacta Iamara is neither here nor a ship and her words are needed too.

A giggle tickled my ear which was inside the Wraithbone core of the ship.

A new blessing made its way into my soul, the Divine fragment making itself a part of me just like all the others. Gea approved of both my finagling out of marrying a starship the size of a small moon and of informing her and the Patheon of what the Craftworlds have been getting up to. She blessed me so that my steps will ever flow smoother and my dances will be filled with slightly more grace.

I could feel the Divine logic take hold in my soul and then into my mind and then into my body as small inconsistencies in my modifications were smoothed over and small imperfections were corrected and my entire being hummed in contentment as my new body felt a level of relaxation it has never felt before. It does not allow me to match the Craftworlders and their designs still, but it allows me to flow through gravitational waves my sails catch and that my generators turn into energy with somewhat greater efficiency.

I turned to the ship who now breathed a sigh of relief now that her mother was no longer less hidden than before and her eye started to glow again. She had seen the Pantheon as they observed her when both eyes were fully open and now with only one eye open she could once again pretend they were not watching.

"Do not force me to repeat this performance again. I barely managed to make it so that we are not married by the end of it." I pleaded with her.

She looked uncertain at my words before she whispered words that only I could hear.

"Would it truly be that bad? I am so undesirable?" She whispered in an almost desperate tone.

She was frightened of the future, of the plots and machinations of the Divine and now was willing to throw herself at the first island of stability she could find for safety and certainty.

I sighed and even if my ears could not hear, even if a hundred different types of sensors could not perceive it, even if every single soul sense I was aware of could not perceive it, I knew that Isha, Asuryan and Gea were cheering at her performance and hoped their children's 'love story' still had a chance at becoming reality.

I cupped her face and looked deeply in to her Sapphire Eyes with my own eyes of cracked Steel that seeped with lava.

"I do not have the time to raise a family, I do not have time to rest, I do not have time to give to those that love me the love they desire, for to love is my weakness and the more those I love love me back, the weaker I become to them and those that wish to use them against me. I do not love you, I care for our child and think of yours with fondness but I do not wish for things to go further than that. The galaxy burns, the galaxy will continue to burn and I must continue my part in making it sure that what will rise from the ashes will bring joy to our people." I replied, my voice like steel.

She nodded at that and I could sense that I have caused despair in my divine audience, much to their amusement.

"Then you are a fool Bessar Agail." She said with a radiant smile.

"The biggest." I replied with a smile that mirrored hers.

I disappeared before she could finish her kissing sneak attack and I was no longer a dream ship pretending to be an Eldar, but just a ship-eldar.

I can feel the foolish woman's giggles of relief still but they are far less important now than my crew. I had the presence of mind to keep them safe from her sight but I was not fully in control of my actions or thoughts for some time and I need to make certain that they are well.

I could see the two awaken in front of my core after hours of sleep and I considered my words.

"I hope your payment was sufficient Navigator, and the experience informative sister."

The two women looked in fear at my core, much to my amusement. They learned a bit more than I intended but such is fine, for one of them wishes to be paid in danger and the other should probably learn more lest she becomes like me.

"I can assure you that the dream has ended, all that is left is reality and its cruel laws."

The two shuddered as it seems my words failed to convince them that Divinity no longer used my soul like a puppet.

"If that was too scary we can always go and be pirates, I am sure I can figure out how to paint a black flag on my sails and give you two eye patches. I am sure I had some prepared, now if only I could find them. Yaar~" I continued and sang with amusement.

That seemed to do it as the two breathed in relief as their songs told me that they knew it was me now, for no Divine could lower themselves to being a pirate and being so bad at it.

Fools the lot of them, for Khaine loves sea shanties and everyone knows pirates have the best ones and so Khaine loves being a pirate too.