Chapter 105:

Chapter 105: Going around one's orders has consequences, but so does giving unpopular orders.




To be a priest is to be a purveyor of culture and its laws. It is to look over the people and divines subjected to them, guide them, love them and ultimately mean them well.

To be a Virtuous Individual is to know the difference between Morality as a Cage that restricts you for both good and ill and Morality as a Tree that has learned when to Stand tall in face of temptation and when to bow in front of the wind and let the law be broken or ignored, for to do so helps the one subjected to it.

To treat Morality as a Cage is to treat it like a foreign thing that keeps you a prisoner and does not care for you or your worries, only that you stay in your assigned spot and can never leave it, while to treat Morality as a Tree, is to treat is a source of prosperity and safety as well as companionship, for a tree provides plenty to those that agree to stand in its shade and take from it's fruits.

Malicious Compliance is the Death of System and must be avoided at all costs as the Old One can See, for we are Maliciously Compliant to their Laws and if only they were softer with how they implemented them and had us follow them, then perhaps we would not have gone out our way to be this Maliciously Compliant.

This is the final lesson all priests must learn my sister Laciena, for at every possible occasion, the Children of the Stars must choose the latter interpretation if they wish for their societies to last. Isn't that right my dear brother?

The piece of Narrative commonly referred to as Cegorach said as I glared at its physical representation.

"Speak normally Cegorach and tell me why do you accuse me of Sabotage? Was it Sabotage when I fixed your fuck-up with Vect? Was it Sabotage when I made sure that we have a back-up available when the fools fail to survive the War in Heaven? Or was it when I was trying to find out what was wrong with the Ship-eldar and you insisted to come talk to me?"

I also made sure Laciena remained silent with a short flex of my will. Her speaking might annul the chances of many inside the Empire as the Gods find a way around them with one of those under their protection present.

The Godly Avatar chuckled.

"No, my dear, lovely, adorable​, fierce​, MAD brother, none of that was Sabotage. You have been sabotaging the gods in their preparation for the War in Heaven and the Pantheon has decided to stop trying to correct things and just put you in a time-out until the event happens♪" My Divine Brother replied with a laugh that ended in a giggle of bells from it's harlequins hat.

"I am sabotaging nothing, the morons won't survive without the things I've been planting for them to be and do." I denied.

My brother raised his left and started to count.

"Military techniques, logistical support in terms of food issues, cooperation between each other and with humanity as well as infrastructure." He said and raised one finger for each point.

"I have done nothing in relation to infrastructure." I denied vehemently.

"My dear brother need I remind you of your idea of putting soldiers in pieces of infrastructure to get them to follow orders?" He giggled

"That was an idea to stop them from mutinying as our brother told us that was an issue which I provided one of probably many solutions."

"And that solution just happened to increase the assets available to all Eldar after the Birth. Brother, the Pantheon sees everything you do or wish to do even as we carefully tilt the scales in a way that stops it from happening." He said and the darkness disappeared.

What was left was a Kaleidoscope of possible futures and pasts, each held in a shard that appeared for a few heartbeats before it was gone.

In one I was a prince at the head of a giant fleet of thousands of ships and many, many craftworld sized ships. The reality where I joined Anaen.

In another I was the Master of Rituals at the court of a new Queen as my siblings new Mother rose up against the new Divine and managed to section off a part of the Empire from her Ravenous Hunger. The Motherhood I denied.

More appeared, a reality where Commoragh switched from being based on Pain and Torment and instead its inhabitants turned towards the Adulation and Worship of the Masses, another where other space faring societies could survive thanks to my meddling, or Webway realms that could resist Vect's centralization and thousands of other possible futures.

"At every possible point you could take that we did not all but force you to pick another through as much Nonsense we could throw at you, you immediately sabotage the War in Heaven by giving our adorable children each and every possible Advantage you could get your mittens on, oh I love that expression I have to get me some authentic Terran Mittens one of these days just to make the point, because they are very cute." He spoke but I ignored those words.

More Futures and Pasts showed themselves and as I wasn't the one to peer into them and merely being shown these fragments it meant I could plunder them for ideas.

"That, that exactly is what every single soldier of the Armada left awake or in service does. The Secular regiments always just Mutiny while the Holy ones do everything possible to go around the Pantheon's edicts on this particular instance. Even the Priests, the moment they gained a single possible breakthrough to give the Survivors any form of succor they took it as if it was the only shred of potable water on a desert world. Why? You all know why this is necessary." He asked.

The Great Fool had far too much trust in our people, but I knew better. The Eldar outside of the Empire and many inside of it were nothing but disappointments and failures and needed to have their hand held at every possible time to not screw everything up.

"We do it because our people are retarded Cegorach, my presence here just confirmed it. The Craftworlders and Commorites show that there is a great overlap between the most dimwitted people and the smartest of Animals, as even with all of the Advantages they had in their reduced state they still couldn't compete with the other powers and our contingencies kept failing as they failed at every possible turn. I am stacking the deck in their favor to ensure they don't get us extinct." I answered.

"You have far too little faith in our people Bessar. Our people are adaptive and now that we know how they fail a few tweaks can make everything run smoother." The god of said people said to the priest who had to live in them.

"And that's what I am doing."

The god shook his head to the tingling of bells.

"One of your schemes taken separately could have been called such, but I was not done counting brother." He said and I felt reality shift in ways I could not name yet felt.

"Your scheme with forcing cooperation through Greed Incentives, the creation of multiple properly sanctified temples and Orphanages for Assets to use and coordinate, the ship-eldar giving your wife a way to project force from her little nook inside the center of the Galaxy, the training of operatives and creation of Schools for your Murderous Medicine Makers and turning them into anti-daemonic specialists, thus giving our people a way to deal with them that will last, as well as preserving psy-automata construction outside of the Empire." He grumbled as his hand grew far too many fingers to count all that I did." This scenario needs to be one that our people can lose in theory Bessar, otherwise it does not do what it is meant to do."

I laughed manically at that.

"They'll find a way to fail Cegorach, if there is one thing I have faith in besides my triplet siblings then it's in our people's way to snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory." I replied cheerfully." They have done little to convince me otherwise, also change reality back and make sure I stay in the reality I used to be in, I can feel the way it changed and it makes it difficult to focus."

Something snapped and I could once again feel normal.

"Fine, but speaking of siblings, your trick with Laciena was Sweet but her not speaking only made it so that I needed more time to look it over, and as we are in an accelerated time zone, I have plenty of time to look over the rituals the rich fools of the Empire decided to use to escape Judgement." He laughed maliciously.

"Cegorach, you wouldn't harm your own sisters' family would you?" I accused.

I felt Laciena gasp, as the fate of the family was now in the hands of the Pantheon.

"Brother?" She asked sweetly of the Divine with the most devious puppy eyes I've ever seen.

They were genuine too which made it even more devious, for nothing is more devious than putting your hope in the Divine and meaning it.

I never fully explained to Laciena Cegorach's Domain of Duplicity and how that relates to our interactions, but all Followers of Hoeth know perfectly well that our oldest brother is an animal and thus a slave to his nature. He can and will act in ways that can be described as supportive of multiple sides until he is forced to pick one side, but family always stick together, and now our sister asked him a question he cannot answer in any way but honestly and he needs to make it so that he does not harm her.

That should teach the Pantheon to stop throwing Women at me hopefully. If not, then at the very least letting them be near me as they try this sort of Nonsense.

His hand lost its extra fingers as he dramatically put it to his chest in an over-exaggerated fashion. I also noticed that his bells did not tinkle which meant that he took that question seriously.

"No my brother and sister, I am guilty of many things, but never of messing with Virtuous people to their detriment and your family are very virtuous my sister, nor would I sabotage our brave warriors which put themselves to sleep in preparation for our victory celebration. Your family took in strangers under their roofs and gave them succor and purpose and so they will be protected by their Kindness and Virtue. Those who only cared for themselves and their servants however have no such protections, they will have to make do as their rituals fall just as Bessar's grandmother is born." Cegorach replied viciously.

I nodded at that, that was more than I expected when I realized the Pantheon were quite eager to ensure I stayed on that world long enough for the Prince to return from how determined they were to get Vect to learn the wrong way as I constantly corrected him and how blatant they were with getting me married so I will slow down enough for him and I to meet. I only realized it after I had entered the prince's Solar and felt the lack of manipulation as my mind and body were truly my own and saw little reason to disagree.

The poor thing thinks me teaching him is me Going Against the Gods and he got it into his mind that it's that easy as I made it seem. If he's proven right I'll laugh at the Pantheon for it as they made it possible, and if not then my third apprentice will have some humility injected into his skull assuming he'll be able to keep it.

If I did disagree with their wish they would have found another way to do it, but by taking her in, I gave the prince a prize for his victory which removed a debt and allowed me to stop the Gods from putting millions if not billions of Eldar that could have escaped the Birth and its horror right back into it. Or at least reduce the number of people that will suffer it.

"A worthy fate for those that used their position for their own benefit as opposed to that of our people." I haggled back.

The clown happily nodded at that, and that was how easy it was to both Save and Damn millions. Now all those who with their actions only saved themselves without care for others as they hid from Reality would die, but those that tried to help others as they hid would survive.

"Thank you brother." Laciena said as she bowed.

Cegorach laughed as he motioned for her to rise.

"There is nothing to thank me for sister, just acting as a Brother should. Now speaking of brothers would our brother like to explain why he is sabotaging the War in Heaven the Pantheon is planning and why the entire Military seems to go out of their way to do the same without even coordinating to one another? I should know of coordination, I was the one meant to make sure it wasn't happening after all!"

Ah, so he shows his true colors as a double agent. My sister's confusion is genuine it seems as she truly did not know. How sweet, sometimes just giving people enough knowledge to be useful is better than just giving them everything.

I shrugged, the Truth can't hurt now.

"You asked people to dedicate their lives and sometimes their very Existence to protecting our people and made sure that we are so much more capable than our people then act shocked when we won't only look down on our people as we are very determined to protect them, but that we'll do everything we can to help them and that includes Malicious Compliance in whatever way we see fit. I gave the Armada a way to do so that helped our plans without it being too obvious to avoid issues, but what do you expect from our people? We certainly don't care for Laws if they don't help our people and those that knew too little did everything they could within the bounds of their oaths to give our people any chance they could, and those that knew too much learned that it's probably an excellent idea if they do just that, because the craftworlders, Commorites and pirates outside of the Empire are too pathetic to achieve anything themselves." I admitted.

What did they expect? That people that have dedicated their Existence to saving our people and families won't go out of their way to save our people regardless of what those above us may want? They should know better than that considering our entire situation started just from that.

"You knew of his double loyalties Bessar?" My sister asked resigned to the prank we pulled on her.

"It's not double loyalties when we both want the same thing but have different obligations and ways to make it happen. Cegorach acted as an Intermediary between Priesthoods, and between us and the Divine as the position of his Mask allowed him to act as both a Priest of Hoeth and member of the Pantheon, and the Pantheon was quite eager to get the next War in Heaven started." I answered.

"Why?" My sister asked simply

Cegorach looked pensive as he thought how to answer, no… he was embarrassed and wanted me to answer. He started swaying on the balls of his feet as I looked at him in amusement.

"You'll owe me one Cegorach. Laciena, the reason for this is that our gods are the same as us and until we are free from the Laws of the Old Ones, they still suffer the same as us, even Cegorach, for they all Crave Violence. The Empire and the Gods have been fasting for a very long time my sister and the War in Heaven is their only chance to truly let loose and satisfy their craving." I explained.

I was quite amused by my brother's reaction to this.

Cegorach nodded shyly, for he just like the others were oh so very thirsty for the sweet nectar of Conflict they have denied themselves for Millions of year more than they planned for on account of needing to deal with the disease known as Boredom.

"He's correct Laciena and I'm terribly sorry for it, both of you, but we're thirsty for the tears and cries of our enemies and we have had no real enemy to fight in so long, so we had to make new ones to defeat." Cegorach continued sheepishly.

The entire period of peace and prosperity the Empire has enjoyed since the separation of Mortals and Divine for Quarantine wetted their appetite and now that the Disease is gone, so is the reason for the Quarantine and they have been far, far more open with creating reasons to reconsider that edict and ways to go around it with preserving shreds of their essence in Hidden Avatars so that they can enjoy the feast that is about to come.

Laciena sighed in defeat at that.

"And the time you came to help me, that was too a deceit?" She asked with tears in her eye.

She didn't take well to duplicity from family and thought she could trust Cegorach to at the very least only act in her interest if not according to what she wished.

"No, NEVER! The others got to greedy and hoped to trick Bessar's newer sibling as they nearly got him to serve as the back-up for my father and past self when they did it to his other Younger Siblings. I told them they shouldn't do that or they might mess things up!" He explained worriedly.

My sister stopped crying at least which was good, even if I did not approve of the actions of the Pantheon still.

"Which I am still not doing brother. If I do it then we lose access to our Apocalypse Vaults and all of the knowledge kept in there." I interjected.

"Bah, nothing there is irreplaceable." He scoffed.

"No brother, that's how we get someone breaking in into them when we least expect it because we forgot they exist. You're the only one with the codes to enter into them, even if you've lost the clearance to approach them." I scoffed right back.

There was also the issue that I did not want to be a god in case Cegorach changed his mind and decided to remain himself and trick all of us into turning Hoeth into his Son. Life as an Eldar gets me everything I could possibly want, Godhood gives me nothing but work and the benefits are not worth it.

"I thought you priests would all kill each other for Godhood! Where's your ambition Bessar?"

"My ambition is to get my family to do well, be happy and prosperous and never have to worry about our people going extinct. I don't need to turn into a Divine for that, and we kill and squabble with each other over ways to structure sentences and none of that matters. Do you truly think most of us actually care that much about Godhood? All the retarded fools that cared for it went to go serve Slaanesh and hopefully eliminated themselves from the gene pool when she noticed her priesthood was Retarded and filled with fools that wished her ill." I admitted.

The Attempt at becoming part of the reference frame of the Eldar Consciousness is something all priests whose tradition descends from Morathi try and it's something of a routine from most of us with a working brain. It's something we do because our position demands it and it's not something any of us can be bothered to achieve, so we make a half-assed attempt to keep the Gods on their toes when we can spare the time while we also work on more interesting projects.

I started feeling a light tugging sensation on my self and I could not see where it came from.

"Oh so it seems that the ritual started." Cegorach cheered and started to dance.

"Ritual?" I asked with a smile, I liked where this was going.

Cegorach did not act as worried as he should have which made my smile wider.

"Yes, your lovely wife managed to get your siblings to perform a summoning ritual for your fat ass while we kept you in storage until the Fall, hoping to retrieve you before your grandmother can get her claws into you, even as the ritual you're in would just return you to life before that happens." He replied proudly of his Achievement.

So, I am currently dead, and only kept linked to my old Identity by the same ritual that killed me. A Royal Ritual is set to deliver me to the hands of my wives and siblings for them to laugh at me for being too slow to run from Divine Meddling as I am exactly where both Gods and Royalty want me to be and I have no choice but to comply. My siblings will laugh at me if I let that keep me down .

How cute, they thought that was enough. Nothing is ever enough to quell my Ambition, not the gods, not the wishes of royalty and not middling attempt at forcing me into Safety.

"You truly thought of everything, well almost everything, but you forgot a rather crucial element my dear brother and onlookers." I said as I could feel the pull grow.

I could also feel the Gestation of Slaanesh approaching its end as the Malevolent creature I am forced to call kin fearfully prepared itself for its role as the Warp shuddered in Anticipation.

Cegorach stopped dancing and gave me his full and Undivided Attention. We were no longer in a Shadow Space speaking as equals. Both myself and my sister were now but pieces of dust in the hand of Cegorach as the Pantheon watched over us nearby.

"And what is that Bessar?" The gods asked as he brought us near him.

Neither of us Cowered, even if for Laciena it was a close thing. She knew that Cegorach was just grandstanding for effect.

"You forgot of our people's interesting relationship with death." I proclaimed

"Oh, my dear brother, I do remember the priest's Empowerment from Death and made sure that the rails you were put on would allow you to Syphon some power from us, thus making you more capable to resists the Unborn's hunger and gnawing of your soul, thus making sure that this experience will empower you greatly and locking you into the position we want you to be in." He crowed proud of himself.

I shook my head with disappointment as the Laughter of Thirsty Gods followed his words.

Sail laughter was short lived, for the gods turned silent as they felt my disappointment.

"You spent too much time talking with priests, and the Phoenix King's attempt at separating Mortals and Divine to avoid Conflict meant you got rusty in your ability to deal with our people's nonsense. All of you and even the Mortals forgot that it was the Nonsense of a Mortal that set us on the path to Freedom, not that of Divinity. Sil Orgauss said that my nonsense stood above that of Divinity in the way it broke common sense and I thanked her for the compliment of calling me a proper Eldar." I boasted.

The Golden Eye grew until it was the size of words as it gave me his fully attention as he looked over every thing I have done in this life and could see no bit of nonsense on my part that could explain my Bravado.

"Bluffing will not get you out of this Bessar." He rumbled.

"You forgot, you actually forgot!" I laughed heartily and had to stop myself from dancing at their confusion.

"Oh, what did I forget my dear brother? Please tell me for I am dying of curiosity and if I keep you here for much longer I'll die for good. We've accounted for what the others did after your Royal Audience, none of them did anything that would help you escape this." The God cheerfully asked.

The Gods looked both worried and excited in the Distance as they loved the show provided to them by their brother.

"When a funeral happens, the Mortals cry for losing a loved one, while the Gods cheer as they receive someone in their kingdom. Because of this the Gods do not attend funerals even as they visit Tombs and it was for that reason that I managed to keep The Unborn from just hitting me to death as I was being lowered into my Tomb as opposed to only after." I declared with a laugh.

His eyes widened and remembered now, and he showed everyone the memory of the funeral I held for my swords, the funeral where I encrypted my genetic code into the funeral stone I made for the Blades of Valor which helped me keep my first Apprentice alive as he earned his Mastery.

More memories followed as he showed the Gods me building dozens such stones each time my blades died be it on Hexxas 3, or Anaen, or the World of Three faces and many more as I never stopped the practice. Each of them was an altar that was desecrated by my hidden siblings and Nephews who went there and did as I did and relocated them to where none could see but to where they could each leave a body for me to inhabit made from the genetic material I left behind.

Soldiers, the families of priests and more, each took the Tombstone I crafted and thus Desecrated the Tomb of my Murderous Medicinal Swords before replacing it with another that looked just like it before disappearing from the Gods Sight.

"Priests set the stage for our people, and just like I helped set the stage for this War in Heaven and acted like bait for you lot, the others worked tirelessly in the background to help put everything in motion and hide many, many more things." I said and turned to my sister and gave her hug much to her surprise.

"Your final lesson as my apprentice is not what Cegorach and I originally said, for that only applies to priests in general and I took you as my apprentice in being a junior priestess. Your final lesson is that things work best when you can act in secret and nobody can see it and that you should always take any chance you could to make people stop paying attention to you as you plot." I whispered to her so that none could hear.

Aesan and Guraith got Marsa pregnant specifically to be able to stay where nobody else could bother to check on their meddling, for they were exactly where the gods wanted them, and now the gods are paying for letting Seers meddle in the galaxy's affairs where nobody will look for them.

Laciena nodded in confusion that quickly turned into determination as she realized what my words meant, as I taught her wrong first as a joke on Cegorach, and correctly later to make sure she understood.

"I'll treasure my apprenticeship to you brother." She said as he bowed.

The gods were now busy looking over my entire life and showing us memories of all of the people that took our Tombstones as they tried to find out their orders which I ignored. That bit of Nonsense I trusted my siblings to deal with and prevent any shenanigans on the Pantheon's part.

"I know you will, take my book and give it to my wife and give both it and the ship to her as well as tell her that I love her. I have somewhere else to be now." I declared.

She tried to speak but I could no longer hear as both of us disappeared from Cegorach's hand. My sister, ship-body and crew as well as the Ship-Eldar clans and tribes were busy being summoned by Royalty to their presence while I had to help my Siblings with whatever they needed from and so had to head to another body they've prepared for me.

Wherever that may be, I was at least free from the meddling of Thirsting Gods.

For now at least.

~~~ AN: With this I declare this story complete. Thank you everyone that's been with me throughout it. I would also like to give special thanks to my Patrons which have supported me, the awesome people which were quick to point out mistakes and help me correct spelling errors or missing words as well as everyone that was quick to comment and engage with this story in any way.

You guys are awesome and let none slander you by saying otherwise.