Chapter 94:

Chapter 94: Priests serve more than the interests of divinity.



Divinity is a strange concept to my mind, both in my human and eldar lives and more so for the Eldar one.

For my human mind Divinity was an abstract concept, a type of existence entirely different from me to such an extent I could find more in common with an ant than that which I have been told is Divine. Despite that Divinity and holiness had rules, structures, ways it can theoretically be and act and even if I've never met any in that life, even if they made no sense to my mind, they made sense to those of others.

The Divinities of the Eldar don't make sense to any Eldar and none of us have ever managed to agree as to what Divinity is even meant to be for us. We know their identities, but their exact nature is not fully understood despite us being able to interact with them. Even Morai-Heg, the most knowledgeable of the Pantheon on the Nature of Eldar Divinity does not know much more when compared to the mortal Eldar and she lost a hand to learn more of it. Sure she learned more than she knew beforehand but what Divinity at its core means to the Eldar is not something anyone knows.

Even to the Eldar priests our own Divines are just as confusing and strange as the Divinities of other species are to themselves, even more so actually, as while the Divines of other species are things they've created, our own Divines were not made by us.

The Pantheon is made from us and us from them but it was not us that made them. We can help sculpt them in certain ways, even make more of them, but the very concept of Divinity is a foreign one to our minds and souls as we haven't made any naturally before we became as we are, because we had no need of it then.

We do need them now however, as the Ancients, our Adoptive Parents, made us need them when they enhanced our emotions a thousand fold to enhance our psychic abilities, because our gods are our emotional regulators.

The Divinities of the Eldar, like the Divines of every single other species in this galaxy, regulate our emotional emanations, preventing things like Chaos or worse from taking root and help maintain our spiritual and emotional health and while they do much, much more than that, emotional regulation is the primary purpose the Old Ones imposed Divinity on us for.

Nothing can normally deal with having their emotions magnified a thousand times, as it would mean that even the slightest flare of anger would be the equivalent of apocalyptic omnicidal rage in other species. The only reason we do not act on it, is because our Divines make sure that while we experience the emotions we are meant to, they do not overwhelm us and instead are absorbed by divinity and thus allow us to actually operate in a somewhat rational way. Adults might learn to live without the Divines influencing us but the newborn? They need our Divines to grow up and be anything more than madmen or weapons that could go off at the slightest twitch and thus we are forced to rely on that which the Old Ones imposed on us.

That being said, 65 million years is a long time to live with something and learn of it, a long enough time for us to learn what and who we are dealing with and while we've given up on trying to figure out What our Divinity is, mostly, the question of Who has long since been answered. The Divines are us, they are the closest you could get to being us without being us and we know that they have roughly the same wants and desires as us, suffer the same as us and most importantly they love us.

If there's one thing no eldar should ever, ever forget is that our Divines love us, they care for us, they want to help us and most importantly, they mean us well and wish us to be happy and for that we need to make sure that their needs are met same as everyone else and it's the priest's job to make sure of it.

Our job is simple, keep the Divines happy and entertained, make sure that when the Divine and Mortal Eldar interact they do so safely and make sure both Mortals and Divines don't do something too stupid when they get a weird idea in their heads. Or let them do it if they want it, but explain to them the consequences of their actions beforehand because neither Mortal and Divine can be bothered to care for them most of the time and so they need a reminder… or several of the fact that actions can have unintended consequences.

It's the priest's duty to teach children to not stab themselves or each other with swords, to warn princes and princesses that killing people that annoy them is a bad idea and teach Divinity that mortals are fragile and that they probably shouldn't give the fools that ask for it the time of their lives. We're also meant to teach idiots to not mug us before they're doing it, like whichever priest is supposed to look after the idiots of this station was meant to do and stop four young men from trying to mug a military officer. I should probably try to stop them myself but I won't.

I've never been mugged in my lives, and I'm dying to see where this goes.

"I am afraid I don't have much that would help you young men. I've been forced to travel light you see." I said.

My face and tone maintained what I liked to call my 'Elderly kind priest looking kindly yet disapproving at young idiots face". This is the first time this face saw the light of day so I sincerely hope it's up to snuff.

I've just come out of the military tunnels after chewing through daemons that could probably bring down pre-industrial armies and nations. It is not me that's in any danger but the young men in front of me, and they truly were young.

The four black haired teens dressed in loose blue clothes looked like any eldar above twenty to my eyes, but their songs felt young and not in the way I came to associate with the people outside of the Empire suffering from Neoteny. These boys were Young Eldar.

They were the type of young that when one added their ages together it was I that was older… probably… maybe… I think? Am I one hundred years old yet? I think so but I would have to ask my triplet siblings because I never bothered to keep count, but I think I am somewhere around there.

"We'll happily check ourselves after you disarm yourself." One of the boys declared smugly.

They now pointed their weapons at me, their hunting weapons meant to hunt beasts and that for some reason are really popular outside the Empire. The weapons that coincidentally still had their safeties on.

It seems the kids didn't even know what they were doing it seems, probably their first attempt at a play and a prank which was absolutely adorable. Now, should I play along and help some future pirate boys get off the ground or send them to their mothers?

You don't normally threaten people with your weapons openly when you try to rob them, you let the implication of the fact that you're armed to do the talking and try to intimidate them with words with multiple meaning that seem friendly at first, but are actually threats. I'll have dock some points for it.

I pulled out my sword and the fools didn't even flinch. I let it fall pommel first on my leg and kicked it in one of the boy's arms to wait for where this was going.

I am not about to sabotage some young boys first attempt at a play, so I'll continue to play along and see where this goes.

One of the boys twitched, it seems he sensed something wrong as his… brother? yes the song calls these boys brothers… caught it. How cute, one of them has survival instinct and he sensed that I did not move like someone unused to violence.

I could feel the ripple, the four were singing to one another even as their bodies did not show it. The boy with survival instinct took the lead and the other boys spread around him to make sure they could still shoot.

The leader started to search my robes which were empty just as I claimed much to his disappointment.

"Happy young man?" I asked kindly.

I had the grace not to chuckle at them.

"How did you even get here with nothing but a sword on you? The Guardians do not allow vagrants on station." The leader asked.

Now the rest of the fools have started thinking too.

They don't recognize me or my clothes which meant that I was not a native or one of the more frequent travelers. I also had little that would allow me to be accepted on this station which meant I either had someone to leave my belongings with and that someone might be watching.

"Haven't met any on this station yet I'm afraid." I replied smoothly.

The boy backed down and left back to the safety of his friends who were now having a psychic conference thinking what to do now. I was not privy to what they were saying to one another but their songs gave me a rough idea of what was happening.

I started making a new sword in my sheath while the four were looking nervously at me and started whistling a little tune. It didn't spook them but they were annoyed. Impatient youth and indecisiveness are the worst combination to have and I wonder if I can't help fix that.

"What now young ones?" I asked.

They looked to one another asking themselves just that. They succeeded in mugging me of a sword, now what?

They hadn't thought that far and I didn't think I had this much self-restraint in me to not start laughing. The boys haven't even thought of an ending to their play, as they never expected to even get that far and it made me wonder just why they even went with it, but young eldar are young for a reason.

I pretended to be disappointed and sighed.

"If you don't know then that's fine, let this priest teach you what you did wrong and then I'll go talk to your parents on not teaching you how to be scoundrels properly."

Fear met my words and I could feel the children freeze up and already prepared to run. Now, we can't have that now, can we?

Their muscles tensed and screamed at them to move but I stopped them and considered what to do with the fools.

Their weapons had no holster or sheath or anything to keep the weapons in so I couldn't even have them put the weapons away. They were hiding their weapons under their large white leather jackets which I assumed to be part of the local fashion, but it seems that I was wrong and instead served a… functional purpose.

How scandalous. Just what are they teaching children these days? Accessories are meant to be functional and clothing is meant to give coherency and style to your image but the boys seem to think accessories are optional and clothing functional.

How absolutely barbaric of them.

My kind smile never left my face as I talked and made sure they could not scream for help.

"Now let's find a place to review your performance youngsters, do any of you happen to know of a place we can relax at and talk? Please don't shout and stop singing, nobody will hear it and I truly don't have any mercy to give you."

I let their leader speak to tell me where to find a place to sit at, as this back alley had none that was decent enough to use.

"We-we're sorry please don't harm us!" He begged.

"Now now, it's not the time to beg yet, I'll have to dock points for that too~" I sang cheerfully.

The four whimpered but their leader would not give up so easily it seems.

"W-what do you want?" The leader asked fearfully

Oh, negotiating so fast? I suppose they did not have another option left to them, but it still came fast.

Good, the boy is fast on his feet at least.

"You are going to find us a place to sit and talk at, there I will give you an in-depth report of every single fuck-up of your short performance where you attempted to rob a priest and somehow failed at it so badly I had to stop myself from cackling like a maniac. Once I am done with that, we will go to your parents where I will shame them for not teaching you how to mug people properly and I'll pester them for information in exchange for letting me see them punish you for your bad performance and the shame it brought them. I then might need your help in annoying some people for giving me more work to do and inflicting me on this station." I answered cordially

The four were even more scared now which made me wonder, did their parents not know what they were getting up to? Now that's just downright irresponsible of them. Children should tell their parents what they're going to do when they have their fun.

"Is there a way we don't get our parents involved in this?"

How… hilarious their lives are in danger, they know this intellectually and instinctually, and yet they fear their parents more. Now that's a sign of good parenting if there's one.

"No, be glad I am willing to have you pretend to be some respectful younglings helping an elderly priest out to the rest of the station, as I doubt your families wish others to know you shamed them with this poor performance and went behind their back to do it."

The four whimpered audibly at this. It seems I was right in the fact that they're not here with approval form their parents.

"Don't be so sad, I'll make sure each of you will get a nice little sword like the one you're holding to sell the illusion that you're being paid to show me around the station and escort me around." I said trying to get them to relax.

I even pulled out an identical sword to the one they have out of the sheath to show them that I can hold my end of the bargain.

That didn't seem to work which was a shame, but they'll have to live with it I'm afraid. If they wanted things to have not reached this point they really should have thought and done better, as the fools did not have the excuse of divinity messing with them. They are under the protection of their family until they become adults after all, and the Divine know better than to mess with that.

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

The thing about being in a possible shootout is that nobody wants to be on the losing end of it and the best way to ensure that is to not have the bigger guns when placed in one.

"I am more than happy to talk Shadowmask, but I believe we started on the wrong foot unfortunately." I replied to her veiled threat.

I forced myself to calmness and signaled to my love to follow my lead.

None of her subordinates actually pointed their weapons at me yet, so this is still a somewhat cordial setting.

Shadowmask might have more guns than me, but I have a future mother-in-law that likes me and said lovely woman has access to starship grade weapons she is eager to use. And my lovely Fiochar has informed her that her cannons are needed and I didn't need to feel her pointing them in our direction to know she had our back. They weren't hot naturally, as the station itself would react violently to it, but the threat was quite clear.

I have the bigger guns.

The woman's shudder told me quite clearly that my future mother-in-law has just put her in the sights of her cannons. The wine-house was told to put their guns down and as they did so and went back to pretending to be guests, I went and sat down at the table.

I was asked to after all and it would not do to insult my host by not listening to her request to be seated.

Fiochar joined me shortly with a smile as she stuck to me like a leech. She was also far too happy about our current situation which I ignored. Some things are better if you don't think about them.

"What is this about the Armada Shadowmask?" I asked calmly.

It was important to have control over the conversation and so I had to maintain a calm mask compared to my screaming mind. The woman had no reason to lie to me about this, but I needed more information, especially as she said that Bessar Agail was on the station.

The station is large and we probably had enough time to run, especially as Fiochar had a Wraithgate on her and Bessar Agail did not have his ship with him.

'At least we now know that my uncle's theory on him being a ship-eldar is wrong.' She mused.

'Unless he has a way to change back and forth between ship and eldar.' I hit back.

It was unlikely and her scandalized song told me she agreed to it but it did need to be said.

'What's with men and their unwillingness to allow each other to be wrong? Is this some conspiracy all of you have among each other? You haven't even met and yet you defend each other's arguments with the ferocity of brothers!'

'Now that's just nonsense my love, I am doing this because you uncle is a very reasonable and wise individual and wise individuals know to stick together even if we never talk.; I said and ended the conversation.

Shadowmask let us have our private banter, but propriety had limits and I did ask her a question.

"Bessar Agail, is a logistics officer in the Armada of Shattered Stars, a rank granted to him for his work in building up the military apparatus of Queen Sian Ceassana who he married. He is also a Master Soul Healer and Medicine Maker and priest of Cegorach-who-was-once-Hoeth as well as diplomat of the Pantheon to the race of Mankind. This is the identity of the individual chasing you and you clan."

I frowned at, that made little sense.

"You are describing multiple individuals as if they are the same one. Also you forgot to add in Pirate." I accused.

Her eyes shifted from blue to red as the shadow-mask obscuring her face changed her facial features as well.

"I thought so too, but a scribe of Asuryan from the Moon of Lileath has sold this information and it has spread like Wyldfire across the information brokers of the Empire. Also I did not forget anything, the report said that the two are unrelated." She replied with annoyance seeping from her voice into the air.

She did not like being accused of sloppiness and to confuse the achievements of one individual with those of another of a similar name was the most basic mistake one could make short of trusting a rumor with only one individual that knew of it.

"What did they take as a bribe for it?" I asked.

Scribes of Asuryan are known to be incorruptible. They are the most uncompromising individuals in the Empire and even their 'breaches' of protocol are not a sign of corruption but a warning and a continuation of the great Cry of Asuryan some years ago.

When asked to reveal secrets only they are privy to, they will always refuse. They will refuse riches, glory, spouses, love, power, dark and terrible secrets and more, but sometimes they will let something slip for an esoteric price to serve as a warning of what is to come.

Some say it is a warning from the Gods themselves, others that it is merely their sanity finally leaving them, as after revealing that which they did they would lose their position and what they accepted as payment serves as that which the Eldar must fear. Audiences with divinity, the heads of royalty, the dying cries of distant realities, dreams too dark and terrible to name and more have been used as payment and I needed to know what the warning was.

"A joke nobody knows." She replied with a grimace.

My face mirrored hers because only one thing can explain that.

Cegorach.

Fiochar was confused at this, as she did not care much for symbolism or divinity and their servants but for those of us who have chosen to obsess over secrets this meant a single thing. Cegorach is playing a prank on reality again, and it is so far reaching and convoluted that the galaxy now trembles in fear.

And his tool in this galaxy spanning prank is hunting us.

My hands started covering my face as I removed all of the sensory inputs related to sight from me, as I needed every single shred of my thinking meat I could spare to figure out what this meant for us.

"I'll take that reaction as you not knowing what you've done." The woman with no face declared with a sigh.

"We don't." Fiochar admitted.

I could feel her turning to me with worry but I couldn't focus on that now. I was too busy trying to figure out what Cegorach pranking the Empire meant.

Cegorach's pranks are meant as a lesson, they are meant to teach you something, at least on the surface, because Cegorach is the god of Fools, and when fools want to do something they achieve another and due to this Cegorach is also the god of duplicity.

So, why does that mean that the Armada wants to find us?

"Why does Cegorach want to involve us in one of his pranks?" I muttered.

It was the only explanation that made sense, the priesthood of Cegorach needed the ship-eldar for… something, either to use us as a teaching aide or to make something regret it was ever born or both.

"I was hoping you two could answer that." The woman with too many faces observed.

Her eyes became golden and her features soft and her hair continued to be made out of shadows.

"Why are you acting as if the gods can do anything? Even if they're still alive Asuryan' edict prevents them from acting." My love asked ignorantly

Both me and Shadowmask chuckled together as we basked in the common joke of our kind. The secret that separated masters from apprentices and the best kept secret in the Empire.

I dropped my hands from my face to the table and looked at her and with mirth in my eyes I explained to her what few know but that which is obvious to those that peddle in secrets.

"The gods are very much alive and active my love, the edict prevents them from interacting with us, it does not demand that they ensure their actions do not affect us." I explain.

She was not convinced, this I knew, but this was the final lesson of all the masters of secrets. The lessons was that the best kept secrets are not those that are hidden the best, but those that even when you reveal them, none believe them.

None of us have managed to find out how the gods pulled this over us, but not a single Eldar believed that the gods continue to affect us without worry whenever they want. None but the masters of secrets do, as we have access to too much hidden knowledge and data to not be able to spot Divine interference.

She didn't believe me, much to my and the other woman's amusement. Nobody does until they experience it because for some reason Eldar think our Gods would not bother with being sneaky, despite it being one of our favorite pastimes.

She could sense that we were truthful, through whatever way she and he clan could use and yet she still didn't believe me.

Absolutely hilarious.

"Yes, but I am willing to pool resources in to find out what is happening because I have 24 hours to present myself in front of him." Shadowmask said.

I frowned at that.

"He or his servants have been here?" Fiochar asked worriedly.

It's one thing to be on the same station as him, this station is large enough we can make ourselves scarce without him noticing, him having been here has been confirmed by the seers that it would make him more likely to find us.

"No, I doubt he even knows where this wine-house is. He has issued an ultimatum to me and the Prince that I have 24 hours to present myself to him. If I don't then every single attempt to see the future past that time ends in fire and death, because I will have no future as neither myself nor the Station will exist past that point." She said

That's bad, that's very bad.

And judging by the fact she said that the prince knows too, then any chance of her running or of us just killing her is out.

"And I assume you'll tell him whatever you need to in order to continue living."

"Yes."

I rubbed my eyes at that answer, I needed a drink.

"I am willing to pool in knowledge and let you act as an intermediary between us and Bessar Agail." I said.

Shadowmask nodded and signaled to her servants to bring us a drink.

'What are you doing Camaus?' My future wife screeched in my mind

'We are not escaping the Armada, least of all when the Divine are interfering. Inform your clan of it and have them prepare for a dialogue with Bessar Agail. He is currently waiting for Shadowmask to reach him, which means he is not looking for her or us for now. We can't run from the armada Fiochar, but we can at the very least find out what they want from us before they get it." I sang back.

She had no argument against that.

One of the male servants came and poured as each a glass of black wine which boded well for our stay. That was her favorite and she was the least likely to tamper with it.

"Why haven't you tried to talk with him before?" The woman across as said after taking a sip of her wine.

I did the same and waited for Fiochar to answer as she knew the answer to that question and could explain it better.

"Each attempt to get close to him ended with him finding us. Our seers can't See anything when they try to see what would happen if we try to talk, only what would happen if we fought and so we've decided to do neither and instead run."

That put a frown on her mask as she considered her words.

"Nothing as in you can't see the result?"

"Nothing as in each time we try our Seers see nothing of the future, it is as if the moment we meet him the future no longer exists. I am assuming you're seeing something similar with his ultimatum?"

She shook her head at that.

"No, I clearly see my death and the torment that follows as he rips my soul out of my body to be tormented in a Soulstone and if I do anything but present myself to him then that's the only thing that will happen and the only thing I See."

"And what happens during the conversation?" I asked.

Both women turned towards me in puzzlement, then looked at one another as they decided on which of them to explain.

"Only farseers look at negotiations they haven't had yet and the last thing I need is to turn into a farseer." Shadowmask explained.

"Would it be so bad?" I asked.

I did not understand the difference between Farseers and Seers despite having been told it is important as Seeing the future is Seeing the future in my mind but every single Seer I've met told me that the difference is vast and that one should not mix them up.

"Farseers in the Empire used to be priests of Cegorach-who-was-Hoeth, senior ones at that that looked into the Future and the Past and asked of it 'How?'. That is the same Divine whose interests Bessar Agail serves and he and his kin consider them to be treacherous animals in need of extermination. Even if I wished to lower myself to becoming one and enjoy being subjected to laws being made specifically to make my life hard and miserable, putting a farseer near a priest of Hoeth is an excellent way to get a dead farseer."

I grimaced at that, yes, let's not do that.

"And the current priesthood of Cegorach? Are they as hostile to them?" Fiochar asked.

"No, they don't care for them, as far as they are concerned, whatever the old Farseers did, those responsible for it are dead and the new generation are just some madmen craving for the power they once wielded. How did he decide to hunt your clan in specific?"

I turned towards her and she nodded, it seems that my future mother-in-law agreed with my take on things.

I took a sip of the wine and realized that it was the best wine I ever tasted but I could not lose myself in it for now.

"The clan pretends to be a corsair clan, but they are in fact a ship-eldar clan. Bessar Agail is hunting for ship-eldar and does not seem to care who he finds as long as they are ship-eldar." I revealed.

"Ship Eldar… the same Ship-eldar that were exterminated 30.000 years ago by the Maton?"

"That was the Blackblade clan, one of several clans. They were the largest and numbered more than all the rest of us combined then, but they were not the entirety of our people. We were saved by a priest of the Twins known as Lammah Airgid who taught us how to avoid a repeat of the purge and have lived hidden since."

That seemed to surprise her.

"He still lived 30.000 years ago?" Our host asked intrigued

"Yes? Is he well-known?"

"I would not say so these days, but a former Mask of Khaine would be known when they were still active. Do you know if they still live?"

A mask of Khaine? What could those monsters even want with ship-eldar?

"No, isn't 30.000 years a long time to live?" Fiochar asked.

"I would assume so, but 30.000 years ago we would have been 70.000 years old where the last known sighting of him was some five thousand years before and he is the only priest of the Twins I am familiar with that ever held that name."

That reminded me of something.

"Shadowmask, Fiochar both of you are familiar with priests, would either of you know what does it means when one wears a silver gauntlet? I have been told that he wore one during his stay on Anaen, assuming he is the healer I heard of."

"I don't know what their clothing means." Shadowmask said.

"The left hand or right hand?" Fiochar answered.

I had to recall exactly what hand was that.

"What's the difference?" I asked

"The left hand is to honor one's parents, the color or motif on it honors the parents and refers to their name and/or occupation. The right Hand represents allegiance to a person or an ideal. The color itself does not matter, but having the gauntlet distinct from the rest of the armor represents the fact that he honors something or someone."

I looked at the wine, I really wanted to experience being drunk again. Unfortunately this wine wasn't strong enough for that.

"His left hand was pure silver, no motif, no decoration." I declared

"So? He had a family member he honors and whose name is related to silver, that doesn't mean he's related to Lammah Airgid, it's just a coincidence." She replied.

She and her clan were helped by a priest to avoid extinction, then another priest serving another god comes after them and has 'possible but highly unlikely' links to the same individual tens of thousands of years later. It could indeed be a coincidence, for the Galaxy is truly vast. And yet as two information brokers looked into each other's eyes both of us realized a single thing.

Neither of us believed her.