Chapter 90:

Chapter 90: A new perspective brings clarity, but a new face brings fear.




The bar was the same as always, the same blue lights, the same ornate chairs, the same drinks, the same masterfully crafted furniture that grows stale after a century, the same everything. Only the people changed, only the people were different each day and only in them one could find a way to relieve the Monotony that life on the Distant Maiden of Opportunity brought into one's life.

It is a shame that so few of them were worth his time that by this time I stopped bothering to try and approach all of them outside of my duties. Most people that wish to approach me now do so out of their own volition too now so I do not even get to feel the thrill of the hunt.

Such is the life of one of the Guardians of the Haven Spires outside of the Empire.

"Camaus Silverblade I would assume?" A voice softly asked as it pulled me out of my ruminations.

I looked at the voice I have never heard before and I had to narrow my eyes as they tried to slid off the woman in question. She had black eyes and hair and features that seemed to not wish to remain in one's mind.

She had a far too familiar faint smile, despite it not belonging to the woman I've grown fond of over the last century. She was dressed in the black pants and white blouse I've become far too familiar with too.

All of her kind were dressed in those loose clothes, including my dear friend who I was awaiting to come visit me, but the fact a new face came to me without her present meant that the woman in front of me replaced her as my primary contact.

'Why do they get to rotate out?' I bemoaned silently.

I wished I could go see other views than this port but unlike my contacts which seemed to rotate in and out of this port I was stuck here.

I invited her to sit near me at my table as I gestured to the barwoman to bring me two glasses of Silla Wine.

"Yes, I would assume that you are Fiochar's sister then?" I asked and rose to prepare her seat for her.

It would not do to be impolite to one's employers after all.

I did not bother to ask if she wished to drink or not, the Vatborn used the drink as a code and to not drink it meant that this wasn't a cordial call and that I was in fact in trouble.

"Yes, I am Ciuni, albeit I doubt my sister told you of me."

She daintily settled on the offered chair as the drinks were delivered and I gave the woman who brought our drinks two crystals for it. The woman froze for but a moment and her eyes widened in surprise at me paying double for it but I waved it off without words.

I am normally miserly with my pay but paying more now would make my employers job a lot easier as she and the bar associated pleasant emotions and money with my new contact.

"She didn't tell me your name but she did tell me she has many siblings. I could recognize the beauty only her and her family has anywhere and she did tell me of your family's might and loveliness so you could be nobody else but my dear friend's sister. It's been months since we've last talked, how is she by the way?"

She took a small sip of the drink only after I sat down, which told me that this was a cordial call and that I am not in trouble.

"She is doing fine, but out Grandmother called her back home to get married and she couldn't say no to our clan leader." She replied with a far friendlier tone than what she said should have possessed.

Fiochar told me of her clan's ways and to be called home by the Matriarch for marriage meant only one thing, she had disappointed her clan and now my friend would no longer be allowed to dance across the stars and instead suffer the same monotony I do now forever and now it seems I will continue to face it without her.

I hid my sadness to the best of my ability, but the Vatborn still felt it, their kin always feels it somehow. Her smile dropped for a bit but then returned as her black eyes met my golden ones.

"Do not worry friend of my sister, I can assure you that she is doing well and that her husband will take good care of her." She continued.

I nodded at that, so the punishment was voluntary on her part so that she would avoid something worse.

"Then I hope that she will be happy back home and find far greater joys than she would have found across the stars away from home." I replied and drank half a glass of wine.

It was the only reply my broken heart could give. At least the wine managed to make my voice not sound as heartbroken as my soul.

The other woman quickly did the same and was surprised by the kick. Fiochar was too and it is a tradition of the shadows to surprise new members with the strong drink. She did not cough at least, my friend couldn't quite manage to hold her alcohol in when she did so for the first time, much to the rest of the establishment's amusement.

The drink starts off soft but its alcoholic content does not hit at the first sip, but once one reaches one third into their glass and unlike other wines it hits nearly instantly when it does hit and turns a light drink into one that can bring down even Eldar if they are not careful or used with it.

The young woman put the glass down with as much dignity as a burning face and trembling hands could allow.

"It is stronger than I thought it would be." Were the only words she could force through.

Amusement rolled off me in waves even if my face showed none of it and the red on her skin deepened.

"Tradition I am afraid." I answered with a shrug.

It was true in a sense too, I started the tradition with Fiochar to mess with whichever new blood came to the Distant Maiden of Opportunity on their assignment, as well as to mess with newcomers to the bar I am in. It was a shame that my friend was the first to experience it but her pride did not allow to admit I got one over her and so it turned from a one-off into a tradition inflicted on any of her clan members as a hazing ritual as well as on any newcomers coming to me for information for the first time.

I could hear snickers from the other people in the bar that had been watching. They quickly returned to their drinks though as new people coming to the bar was far from unusual and them coming to talk to me even less so.

Everyone knew I was open to talk and was willing to give people the general run-down of the area and who the big players were in exchange for an interesting conversation or money, so nobody batted an eye at the next eldar to come and try to talk to me.

This became so routine nobody cared or thought much of those that came to talk with me and this became so routine nobody ever paid much thought to those that did so for I was generally speaking very open about what I talked with them, with few exceptions. That exception being that her clan were my lieges to whom I would also say all that those interesting conversations had to say and more, which was none of their concern especially as the price their paid for what they received was extremely lopsided in their favor.

If they wanted others to not know it they should have paid something worth such a price and none that tried managed it, even I did take their money.

'The things I do to honor debts.' I thought fondly

"I don't smell any trickery so I'll take your words for it." She replied with a huff.

It was difficult to not think she and my friend were not the same woman as despite their voices being slightly different the way they handled themselves and their manner of speech was the same. Even their idioms were the same as they treated trickery as if it had an odor.

"Indeed, I would assume you wish to know of the generalities of the station and surrounding space then? That is what people primarily come to me after all and as you are the sister of my dear friend Fiochar I am even willing to offer a discount." I offered jokingly.

She and her clan already had free access to everything I could offer for free but the rest of the station did not know that.

"I do, but I would rather hear it in a more private if you would not mind as I also posses some more pointed questions."

I nodded at that, so she does not want others to hear her questions which was fair but it would bring scrutiny on her, But if that is what she wanted that was fine, as I doubt she did not know what her request would bring her.

People sometimes wished to keep their questions or payment to me a secret and so they wished for privacy, but that invited scrutiny on themselves more than me. She should know this which meant that she wanted said scrutiny to fall on her.

I finished the wine in one gulp, its bite something I've long since gotten used to. The wine is meant to be drank in five gulps normally, the first being lightly alcoholic and the other four being increasingly strong until the drink is so alcoholic it can't even be called flavored anymore but I cared not for it now.

"My quarters should suffice for privacy."

The woman pretended to being uncertain before she nodded.

"Then let us go." She said and rose up.

She did not finish her drink much to my disappointment, the wine's alcoholic content doubles by the end but it seems she does not have the stomach for it.

"Follow me." I instructed.

Both of us left the bar much to the curiosity of those around us and went through the immaculate bone-white halls adorned with the portraits of various captains that have made a name for themselves across the Millennia this station has stood.

Ciuni decided to not speak throughout our walk which did not bother me much.

I reached my quarters and connected with the psy-circuitry in my door and unlocked it with my most precious memory. I raised a finger to order my guest not to move which she obeyed as the security procedures were not yet completed.

Three clicks followed and I took it as the signal to start the telekinetic moving of the great wraithbone pole keeping my door locked. If I were to have done this at any other time while the security measures were still up all of my reports and belongings would have burned and the pole would have fused shut with the door, thus requiring heavy ordinance to even enter the room.

I would have called it paranoid but I've found my room torched three times in one hundred years by now and I've come to expect it that some people will not accept that what I do offer them is what they asked for.

I opened the door and held it open for her.

"Come in."

She did so with confidence she did not show at her time at the bar.

I closed the door behind me and turned just in time to see a portal open in my room. From it a perfect copy of me came out and did two steps before my guest put a lasbolt through its head, thus creating a gory hole that left my copy's face a gory mess and my mind blank.

The woman turned to me and spoke and pulled my eyes from the sight of my own corpse.

"A man called Bessar Agail has been asking far too many questions and getting too close to finding the clan, your debt is repaid and you are to come with me back to Mother and the rest of the clan as we are abandoning this territory until the danger passed and the madman gives up on his search or we find a way to handle him without drawing suspicion."

I did not know what to say to that, my mind still reeled from seeing a perfect copy of myself be executed and turned into a mess on the floor.

"Is he why my friend was retired?" I asked numbly.

"Yes, he managed to find out somehow that she is connected to the clans and so we are taking all assets in close proximity to his search pattern back to the fleet. You can come if you wish, as my sister has decided to accept the retirement but has made the stipulation that you be brought back too as opposed to being cut off. If you don't want to we can take you to whatever port or world you wish still."

I nodded at that and she created a portal, whoever this Bessar Agail was, was not someone I wished to meet if he can scare the clan like this.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"I have returned with Fiochar's husband mother." My far too bloodthirsty daughter, Ciuni, sang.

She and her line were starting to become too much like Khaine. Such is fine in moderation but I will have to stop their production and switch to a new gene-line. A pity as their father was dashing and brave, but I am not a warrior, I can't afford this to become the norm.

I am a scout meant to patrol our territory and ensure that it is safe, I can't have my children seek any reason they can to kill something and looking through her last target's eyes told me she enjoyed killing the empty copy far too much for my liking.

Hopefully Fiochar will manage to pass her trial to become a mother, as from what the reports said Camaus was an ideal gene donor and father to a new line of spies and informants and my own assuming I cannot stop the aggression from spreading will be relegated to blades in the dark.

'Excellent daughter, take your future brother-in-law to his new quarters then come to the bridge. I will disentangle myself from the station and make towards the webway gate, hopefully we'll be able to leave before the creature approaches." I instructed.

The tell-tale tickling of Webway portals announced me that she did as I asked. My hull does not have corridors, but separate sections that one needs portals to move through and the only way one can do so is either with those I have hidden at specific locations or with one of the Craftworlder's Wraithgates and those are too troublesome to remake and each time one is abandoned and destroyed it can take months if not years to create a new one to replace it.

"Mother." My daughter said from my bridge.

The eyes of my Avatar looked down on her as she knelt. My daughters do as they are ordered, but their father was opinionated and fierce and they liked questioning me and the fleet. An annoyance to some, but a source of bittersweet memories to me.

I miss my husband, 7000 years is far too short a time to spend with the man you love but he couldn't take the trial as an outsider and thus I was forced to look after him as he slowly turned into a crystal for 546 agonizing years.

"You have doubts daughter." I observed.

We were in the webway now and in hours we will be back at the fleet and hopefully the fools will have settled on a new hunting ground by then.

"Why do we run? The seers told me he has only one ship, surely we can destroy it." She ignorantly asked.

All Mothers and Fathers thought the same until the Matriarch showed us a vision of the future where we tried that.

Broken Masts, shattered and blackened hulls of dead bone and a Dragon-ship that sung lullabies that melted bone and whose swords cut down even the Elders and ignored Holo-fields as it danced in and out of the Webway with far greater ease and skill than any have thought possible to do with the Empyrean let alone the Webway. The creature could be slain, this we have seen, but the cost would be steep.

It would be easier to just leave as the galaxy is large enough that we can easily find new hunting grounds. There's nothing here worth half our numbers.

"We can, the Matriarch confirmed it." I admitted.

"Then why do we run?" She repeated herself.

She was growing impatient as her Khaine-logic reasserted itself even in my presence. This has gotten worse since we left the Empire as it seems that the stress of abandoning our territory so often has started affecting the children.

Hopefully we'll get some stability in the future and this will stop.

"Losing half the clan and most of the Elders is not worth it. Whatever the creature wants, it can go bother the other clans for it, we don't want to know of whatever the Khaine possessed creature will do to us if we can't run from it or allow it to isolate us from each other."

My daughter froze at that and fear infected her song.

The creature has started hunting for us two years ago at the edge of the Silvermoon clan and the various pirate ports and alien enclaves and it managed to ferret out our agents with disturbing accuracy and speed, after the Silvermoons themselves disappeared. They might have run as we did as their Patriarch was a Seer too, but we've decided that it would for the best to assume for the worst and that they have been destroyed as each time our Elders tried to peer through the skeins of time nothing could be gleamed from it.

Each time we tried to lead it on a false trail it failed as if it could sense which clue was true and which was planted and as it started weaving its web of travel, our own control over our territory slipped as agents started running away and the clan noticed which one would lead them back to us and which one wouldn't.

The answer was any that met him and he could follow on his ship and so we've decided to not allow any of us to meet him.

Even the agents of the other clans didn't pounce on the vacuum as our borders started seeing remarkably few numbers of them in the last few months which told the Matriarch all she needed to know about the situation.

"Surely it is not that dangerous!" My daughter exclaimed horrified as she raised her head to look at my avatar.

"The seers agree that he is that dangerous and the other clans seem to agree on it too, as it looks like they've reduced all operation in our territory to the absolute minimum and our neighbors did the same as us. Even our borders are no longer contested."

That shook her and impressed on her the reality of our situation.

Hunting grounds are something fiercely protected and contested by the clans and the idea that the borders would be left uncontested is enough to shock any of us as to the reality of what we face. Whatever this creature hunting for us is, no clan wishes to tangle with it.

Our hunting grounds had to expand outside of the periphery of Empire in the last decade thanks to the conflicts growing fiercer and our Matriarchs and Patriarchs sensing them ahead of time and we couldn't even keep a stretch of space for two years before a new horror rears its ugly head to hunt us.

This is the third time we had to abandon stretches of territory and now it seems that we might have to move out of the Empire entirely and move far away from its borders.

"What can we do then?" My daughter asked fearfully as she looked pleadingly into my false eyes for answers.

I had only one to give, the same answer the Elders gave me when I asked the same thing.

"We leave and find new hunting grounds and territory. Hopefully we manage to settle somewhere where no other clan has and the creature loses our trail. Now go back to your siblings, the voyage shouldn't take more than a few days and your future brother-in-law needs to adjust."

She rose up now and met my false eyes with a smirk.

"We aren't telling him of his marriage I hope."

Who does she think I am? Have I truly failed my daughters so much that they think I would sabotage their happiness like that?

"No, Fiochar can inform her husband of that when she meets him. All I need you to do is get him something to do and some basic knowledge of our customs. His wife can… provide a more in depth education as is her right." I replied with amusement, my false face twisting into a smirk.

Spouses of the Void and new blood that is loyal are incredibly hard to find, and so the one that finds them gets to enjoy the honor of teaching them all that they need to learn much to both parties delight. Camaus will learn all that he needs to learn and more under the sweet ministrations and love of my daughter and both of them will enjoy every moment of it as is tradition.

"I will do so mother." My daughter said and bowed.

I stopped focusing on the inside for now and returned my attention to the Webway Labyrinth. The creature and its ship was but days from reaching the port I just left and I need to hurry so that I am not the last from among my siblings to reach back home.

Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of smug 'advice' from those faster than them.



AN: A shorter chapter without the priestly rambling, this last third of an Arc I've decided to show how someone that doesn't interact with Bessar looks at his actions. There will be Bessar POV's but it going to be something like 50/50 of the POV's as I'm going to focus on how Ship-Eldar society works.



Ciuni → Silent

Fiochar → Fierce

Camaus → Calm