Chapter 19:

Chapter 19: To recover from ones' wounds among loved one is bliss for they take care and love you even as they manipulate you


"Daughter you do not have to sleep here, I told you to go sleep in the home of your beloved."

I said tiredly as my new daughter who too is older than me, and that will never stop being funny, decided that I am a great role model to emulate and has taken upon herself to be as filial as I am unreasonable.

She's been my daughter for less than 24 hours and is already making me proud and exasperated.

She wishes to sleep in our home, I have told her she can sleep with her beloved, both myself and the boy's family agreed to it and said it is no favor or trickery as she has been through a lot and the two fools we call family should probably discuss some things among themselves.

'Such as making them a void-ship that can fit through the Webway, making it their home and running.' I thought in irritation.

My siblings agreed with her and me as well, to a point at least. They wanted her here to look after me, and for her to still make herself a home among the stars and live with my apprentice there.

They were busy now despite being tired for we needed to find clients for our craft and make a timeline in which we can serve them.

My three younger siblings and our apprentice went together throughout the world to find those that we could do so for.

This left me with the boy I promised I will call boy for as long as he is my slave and give him a new proper name much better than the equivalent of 'Rocky' as his own parents called him. I refuse to dignify that name with my tongue and song again. I don't know how it happened but the name they called their son by is an insult in my old tongue and that which I invented and I refuse to call him such.

Him and my new daughter were to look after me while my siblings and apprentice found places to ply our trade at.

I didn't need her to look after me. My soul was just as fine as yesterday, same for my mind as the Divine Synchronization with the Bloody Handed God was incredibly smooth and I could think and sing just as well as two days ago.

My body again, was fine, it was just very very tired. No injuries were left on me, my skin only discolored a bit and it will return from light gray to its normal healthy white in a few days.

The woman who is now my daughter gave me an unimpressed stare.

"Father you have walked as divine for one minute and stood halfway there for seven hours. My conversation with my beloved can wait a few days, you need someone to push you in a wheelchair now."

'Why did she have to be so reasonably unreasonable?'

"And you were also so angry that Khaine the Bloody Handed had to stay your hand, lest you forget. He doesn't do that father."

"It's not that big a deal, I can assure you I will enter into greater nonsense and escape with ease." I said with a grin as she put me on the bed gently.

"Master, I am only twenty and I know that the Bloody Handed God has never shown mercy before, this is not a joking matter." The slave boy said.

Funny that I am not joking and that I mean what I said, but I will forgive them for the two could be excused for their insolence, for one has been my daughter for a day and the other is a slave boy that makes good tea that helps his master calm down.

My daughter nodded and patted his head in approval.

'Do not make him wish to stay as my slave you fool, I need him to try and cheat on his bargain with me and make friends to cheat with, so I may trick him into a new name, his parents named him an insult in the language that I created.' I sang silently to her.

She sent her confirmation but did not stop.

"I am not joking my boy, but in a little less than two years that will no longer be your problem and my daughter if she can pass my tests will understand why."

I gave the two my best attempt at annoyance I could give.

*cough cough*

It would have probably been better if I didn't cough while doing it.

Both fools looking after me were worried again.

"Boy, for annoying me I am unreasonable today as well, you will not stay in the home until night comes and will spend the entire day finding friends to play with."

It was morning now, I exiled him for half a day to go make friends he trusts and enjoy his childhood with and he dared look wounded at me. I couldn't pretend at even annoyance with him for long.

"I need to discuss certain things with my daughter as well, now that she is my daughter and they are not for you to hear. I will not be unreasonable tomorrow." I offered.

That he understood and nodded and left after bowing and apologizing.

"You told me you wish for him to cheat his way out of slavery, yet you spoil him so much I doubt he'll ever want to leave it." My daughter laughed at me after the boy left the house.

"Do not remind me of my weakness my daughter for I am weak to that which loves me." I admitted without shame.

I know what I am and I know that I am a madman that loves his family that loves him so much I embody the divine and that is the least of what I plan, for I love my family and even as I do not hold their goals in my heart, I still wish that they succeed at that which they have set themselves to. Even if they cannot do so anymore.

"I'll trick him into a good family, his future family owes me a lot even if they didn't know it yet."

"He already has one if you and my uncles and aunt are anything to go by."

"We cannot take him with us, or you and I will not impose on you that your first child you have to take care of is not your firstborn. His family will love him and more even if they don't know it, of that I can assure you."

She hesitated again before steeling herself and nodding.

I doubt she will ever hesitate like that in being herself ever again for Innia Bris is dead and I will not suffer her ilk in my home nor will any of my family.

I shuffled my way further from the edge of the bed and she placed herself I nth space I have left at my feet that were now covered in light blanket she sang on me.

"What do you wish to discuss with me father that is younger than me?" She asked and I grinned

That will never not stop being hilarious.

My grin dropped as I considered it and formulated my response.

"First is in relationship with your engagement with your beloved and my apprentice."

That gave her the proper focus and seriousness this conversation required.

"The first part is as you know I approve of it, and you can be married as soon as the boy finishes teaching me a craft."

She nodded, she knew that already even if the last part was confusing, but that is fine she'll understand that such is the way of the Laughing Blade if she can pass our tests.

"Yes father, I understand, it is no imposition." She replied seriously.

"The second relates to it for you have a very important mission to assist him for my art has dark secrets to it and will need you to console him. I have already told him some of the lighter ones and they left him crying."

A thought was followed by a realization then horror.

"Father! You can't be serious!"

She screeched and my heart bled but it must continue to do so for I must teach my apprentice all that I can of my craft and that part is important as I want him to continue to live a long and happy life.

"I am very serious, I have shown you one heartbeat of it, he must accept ten in his heart and not forget them."

"I have sensed one! One father and just the memory of the memory of it leaves me shivering! Ten heartbeats of the Dark Soul Pits and not forgetting it is madness."

"I know, but my craft is madness as well and he understands it better than me, I need you to stop him from forgetting it and showering him with enough love that he does not take his life."

*cough cough*

My daughter trembled as she gave me some tea from the tray that the boy left behind.

'Still warm.' I thought as I drank.

"Is it truly necessary?" She asked and it hurt.

I hate hurting my family, I hate seeing them in pain but it is necessary for I wish them well.

"Yes, you know that doom approaches, all in the empire know this and most rejoice while others leave or prepare to fight to the bitter end for their homes."

My tone changed, it was no longer serious as before, it was malicious for I could imagine inflicting pain on that which I hated even I did so to that which I hated.

"The ten heartbeats of the Dark Soul Pit is the final ingredient to my final craft meant to allow my apprentice to save his family and you and my own that I will leave behind as I leave. I have spent half of all years I have spent developing my craft in making it to save who I could. You will agree to this, I will teach you how to resist it and not forget it, and you will help him do so until the two of you can love each other enough that he can survive it then learn to use it."

He can, I know he can, for I have seen Eldar that can do so for my siblings each have an hour of it in their souls. It takes much but it can be done.

She looked at me in fear again.

"Snap out of it my daughter, that despair is for stillborn corpses to feel, not YOU!"

She did, the stardust was once again a soul, if only half of it.

"Is there no other choice? The Gray Wastes are mighty still."

"He can use them as a poor substitute in it but it is like comparing the lightning up of a world against a burning star. It helps but does not do what it needs to."

She stammered again.

"He needs you girl."

That did it and she finally showed herself to be a sword as she should be for her eyes were sharp.

"I will do so father, for Cipanni Oiair needs me and I need him."

"Good, I am proud of you."

Eldar feel a thousand times stronger than they should, less than nine hours of parenthood already felt as heavy as nine thousand and more will come for I too was tricked into it and I needed to share this with her so that she knows that in which she steps in.

"You will need to also greet your godfather as well for he is as responsible for your current parentage as I am." I said seriously even as I only half felt it.

"Godfather?"

Godparents exist in both Eldar and Human cultures as there are some that have them and those that don't.

In human cultures they are the parent before divine, for in case the original parent dies, godfathers and godmothers will take their place before man and god alike and look after them. It is a position of great honor to be offered to anyone, trust too for humanity does not trust others with their children easily and to replace them entirely is not something you can ask for. It must be offered freely and without any strings attached and even then the godparents are still subordinate to parents for as long as they live when it comes to taking care of their common charges.

For Eldar it is the exact opposite in the few cultures that have it, for parenthood before Divine and Mortal is not something freely given but something one must heavily manipulate themselves into receiving. For an eldar Godparent is given the title when they have manipulated at least two families into joining together and thus forming a clan and done so with love for both.

Gua Bis has forged herself a clan nine times over, and all she has done so to that call her mother before mortal and divine do so with joy, for she is their Godmother and loves them and her love is terrible to behold, and she has had plenty of experience in doing so in her time for she is more than 28.000 years old.

Her youngest: Lestean Bairu has turned 31 years a month ago, he is now the godfather of both my daughter and my apprentice for his mother is half as mad as me and taught him too well and perhaps so did his master.

"Each day I regret not letting myself join the clan of Gua Bis or her family directly, for she is a mighty mother and an almost as mighty Godmother and now she is a mighty mother of your Godfather, for her youngest son, Lestean Bairu is your godfather and I know not fully how, but he had managed to trick both me and his mother into realizing it only after I-walked-as-god, for Khaine looked at him in respect for he stood higher than me in the hierarchy of family and both his mother and I now realize that we are two branches of the same clan he now leads."

Truly, Eldar age shenanigans will never stop being hilarious to me, for a 31 year old child is the clan head of a clan with two branches, one who is lead by a 28.000 years old veteran warrior who is half as mad as the other branch head who is a 53 years old madman and our clan head is not even an adult yet.

I sang to his mother this before we reached our audience with the princess and she rejoiced for this means we are family, then looked in horror at that which her son has made without her knowledge, then looked upon it with pride, then mischief for he knows not fully what he did but we will teach him for we love him truly.

I will find out how after we interrogate our Clan Head and find out why and how for I am curious and wish to share the joy with the world.

My part of the clan on this world is myself, my nephew, his father, his wife and their children as well as my siblings and daughter. Gua Bis is now my equal with the mighty clan she has forged that has links to princes and princesses. Both of us are subordinate to her child who is not even an adult.

I sang to her and showed her why. She looked in horror too for she realized the family she married into are just as mad as that in which she got adopted into and she won't escape madness and fools wherever she goes for she is loved by that which are both.

"I love that woman and know she loves me too, and we are now as brother and sister, for her son is our master and protector of the family!"

The hilarity turned me hysterical and it took me half an hour to stop laughing.

"Father this is no laughing matter!" My daughter tried to stop me laughing as she saw I was starting to wind down.

She tried earlier perhaps but I didn't hear it for I was too busy laughing.

But I couldn't, for both man-who-walked-as-god and woman who forged the mightiest clan on this world now have to bow our heads to her son who is 31 and we can laugh and be serious about it at the same time and he has no choice but to take it for he has earned it and more.

I managed to calm myself down after another minute of laughing and she did not stop me for I sang to her and she knew it to be true.

"Yes it is, but none but myself and Gua Bis seem to appreciate the hilarity of what had happened for we both thought the boy wished to marry your aunt for all he came to us and tried to talk and sing of uniting our family, and it was so bad neither me or his mother or the woman we thought he loved knew what to do, but he somehow fooled us all and none but the madman who laughs at gods and mortals alike know how he did so."

A thought, a song a laugh shared between equals as my swords laughed too.

"How certain are you of this father?"

"Gua Bis just sang to me and confirmed it, for her boy has the blessings of Lileath, Cegorach and Isha now and before he only had that of Lileath, for he tricked families and clans into existence and love and needed the divine to reveal the trickery he crafted."

I have two seers in my immediate family, one is talented and can escape the sight of farseers even if he cannot contest them in their craft, the other can speak with his future possible selves that can and cannot be so. We did not see this coming

The family of Gua Bis has her own seers and the Man among Men to look it over or perhaps cover it up. They didn't see it either.

His own mother did not know what he was doing and neither did we, for only the divine could see whatever deranged thought process he took for he is not a farseer, for I doubt they don't fear what he might achieve either as I have crafted him two swords to keep nightmares away and each had to be crafted to be equally mighty to those of the son of the man among men for both needed their nightmares slashed with equal ferocity.

She looked as if this day couldn't possibly get any weirder, good thing that I had more good news for her and that the serious conversations could wait until my siblings were here for when they would be here we would go to the house of Gua Bis and our new master and celebrate the fact that she is pregnant and her son and man among men both dreamed of the name the day before and had just told us before my performance.

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


To be a man without enemies is difficult, especially when your mother mocks and respects you so. The fact that she had been joined by the man-who-walked-as-god makes it even more so.

Mother called for a clan meeting in the basement of our home she and father created for such things in order to allow the clan she had forged nine times over to meet and exchange favors and love and gossip.

Nobody but me and her expected Bessar Agail and his entire family and clan and slave on this world to come to us as well and claim he is now a part of the clan for while his daughter is to marry into our own family that did not make him so, but mother claimed that he is and none questioned it from then on even as they were confused as to how.

All were, but me and mother, the man among men and the man-who-walked-as-god and god begged for clemency, for I know my sins and I know that I have created the situation I am in.

The man among men has taken me as apprentice and he had revealed to me the first great secret of all seers craft.

'When you look at something, something always looks back.'

And a mighty secret it was, for none but seers understood what it meant when they say the saw nothing and whimper for it means they know not that which could possibly hunt them for something is always watching.

But I am crafty as my new master had told me, and so had found a trick thanks to the craft of Bessar Agail that I had only told master of and we both swore each other to secrecy on it, for it was something both of us had to work together to make use of and yet it was very dangerous to let others know we could do so.

'Whenever something looks upon you, you can kill them for it for while you may not be able to see them you can cut them and if you can cut them you can trap them and if you can do so you can kill them.'

Some might say that the Gun-Swords of Bessar Agail, who himself is a Gun-Sword, would replace dream catchers and whoever says so are fools. The two don't do the same thing at all, they don't compete but complete each other as if the two were made to kill that which slithers into the warp and the craft of Bessar Agail made a tool that has existed for 150 million years whole.

The Gun Sword find and cuts the hand of that which slithers, the dream catcher catches it and leaves it hopeless for dissection and study.

My master confirmed it to me as we caught never born and turned them into screams and dust for to do so was the craft his Mistress taught him so, but Neverborn are too slippery, for while you can see their tendrils, their real bodies make the catching of Neverborn an extremely lengthy endeavor that might take years or decades of constant attempts for each catch and even then you might only catch the least of them.

Unless you have a dream catcher and a gun-sword that is, in which case it can take hours to do what takes centuries to learn to even attempt.

One man wields a gun-sword, the other a dream catcher and together they accomplish in a day as much as seers in a year.

My master is a man among men and a master of the craft of seeing and creating tools that help him do so. He took me as apprentice and we both noticed it.

The combination of both gun-sword and dream catcher works on neverborn, it works on paradoxes, it works in preventing seers from knowing that you look at them unless you have other tools to prevent this tomfoolery, tools that my master had to create and now teaches me how to do so as well.

I do not know what a gun-sword is, Master tells me that guns act like Shuriken somehow and presumes that a gun-sword would be a mix of sword and something shuriken-like but it is not quite the same for there are concepts in it that do not exist in shuriken throwers.

We know that it works, we know how to use it and master had managed to merge it into his craft and expand it and I had a plan to expand my family and unite it to that which the divine asked for clemency before they did so.

It was my plan, my master agreed to help me for he loved both my family and that of Bessar Agail and thought we could do it and neither of us realized that my plan would make me clan-head.

My master did not know either, for on his world and all those he traveled to, the notion of Godfather and Godmother did not apply but they apply on this world and so two fools stumbled blindly and one fell into the situation I find myself today.

'Master, are we farseers?' I sang to my master fearing that we might have become such.

'No, my apprentice I have seen such and we are not there yet.' He responded.

'Then why are we so shortsighted and foolish and did not see the consequences of our actions?'

'We thought there would be none for like the fools we were we thought we had found all variables, and yes that makes us like farseers perhaps but we both are much more foolish than them and far less capable even as we are not as shortsighted and ill.'

Ah that's why, yes that made sense. Cegorach only gives his blessing to fools after all and Isha blesses those who have large families and wish for more.

I nodded physically at this, that made sense.

I probably shouldn't have made that gesture for both mother and the man-who-walked-as-god took the opportunity to place themselves on their knees and bow to me as deeply as they could and spoke as one with all the seriousness what they were about to do demanded but did not feel.

It would have been far more respectful if their song did not scream in joy and mirth and endless laughter that even as they confirmed to all that yes, they were not joking and yes they still found this situation endlessly hilarious for both were mad as both of them were four times blessed by their patrons.

"These lowly branch clan leaders humbly ask our mighty and wise and tricky clan leader how have we been fooled so by our clan leader who beares the blessing of three gods and who himself is apprentice to a man among men who carries the blessing of three gods as well, for we are but foolish fools that are tricked by such and needed revelation levied upon us by the Divine to even realize that we were tricked, and so we beseech thee to tell us why for we are fools and we've been tricked and are family and wish to ask you why for we know not how or why and can only guess as to when."

I swear these two had repeated this together at least once. You could not notice that there were two physical voices when they spoke as they spoke as a chorus.

The rest of the gathering were silent as they looked at me and knew their words to be true.

'My mistress told me that to teach would show how foolish one is in their craft and I believe she spoke of moments like this even if I cannot scratch the itch upon my soul that says that she meant this moment.'

Both the living and the dead mock us it seems for we are fools and we would have to handle it.

"I have wanted to mix my family to that of he-who-walked-as-god since the moment he made the sword under whose rampage I had slept soundly, for it brought my family joy to do so before I knew it is a gun-sword and loved it more for it."

They didn't look up.

I would have to continue it seems.

I will not fall alone into the hole, for my master is near me and it is his duty to catch my hand.

"My master had taught me his craft for he took me as apprentice and he is a seer with thousands of years of experience and noticed an interesting interaction between that of the gun-swords you provided and the tools of his craft. These interactions were enough to spur me into action and devise the plan which, with the help of my master, I have united our families into one."

'I'm sorry master, but I am not falling into this nonsense by myself, it is your job to help me as I learn and mine to learn.' I secretly sang to him.

I am 31 years old, he has lived for thousands of years, it should have been his duty to ask if we should do it and look one day into the future to look upon the consequences of my plan, But none of us did so for we are fools and we must both live with it.

AN: I hope you guys can see the family resemblance?

Rocach→ Roach =Rocky

No I am not joking, I took it from here. https://anythingtranslate.com/translators/celtic-translator/

I'm taking most of the names of my cast from there as well.