Chapter 22:

Chapter 22: Farewells are quite frightening


My siblings and I are whole again, and thus can once again ply our trade completely and as we do so we can once again look upon mortal and divine and laugh at them for it as is proper. And I see that the new divine wishes to smite me for the insolence for I have wronged it greatly and stole a daughter from her side. A daughter who is older than her would be mother too.

Now I need to make my getaway, for the claws of that which I have angered close around my neck, but before that I have a debt to pay to the woman who is now as sister to me and who I dearly wished to call mother, for her family has need of my eye and their mother is too busy giving me time to run.

And speaking of daughters, now I need to decide if my sister's newest one will die or not, for only I and her own mother know what it means to be reborn and thus it is up to us to determine it.

I stood in the house of Gua Bis and acknowledged her as my sister even as soon she'll have her way and be my god-mother, even if I won't be here to love her for it, for Gua Bis is a creature of love and family and while she is proud of her son for tricking her she is still his mother and must remain so.

I wish I could be so as well, but I have decided to be a filial son and taken in the responsibilities of my home that my fathers and mothers have given me for I am now an adult and I cannot enjoy the love of living parents.

We both planned for it actually, even if we did not speak of it to the other. I know she will find a way to make it so, probably by using the gift I have given to the princess but as I won't be here to contest her claim and she will have put more work into it anyway, for what she plans will be the work of decades.

I played with Rionala Arana for she is a very cute child and she is perhaps the final proof I needed in order to decide between if the Eldar Gods are still trying to do their duties or if they are now just corpses waiting to die. Her name translates to the Queen of blades and her name is a newer form of the word Aenaria, the ancient sword mistress that used defeated Machine Gods to sharpen her sword for nothing lesser was worth the honor of touching it and not dying.

She is a very cute, very happy and murderous child for she has the same name for they are the same individual. Truly Eldar age shenanigans will never not be funny.

She was also born awakened because some sort of divine enjoys messing with the life of my family and clan. Now it is up to me to find out which and see if we can't kill her for it.

"Follower of the damned, why did you attack my family? I will defend them from your machinations."

She was certainly precocious but she was protective of that which I loved, so I will give the former cultist enough of a chance to not murder her in her crib even as I pretend to coo and look at her with love.

"I do as I must old hero. Why were you reborn in the clan of my apprentice and family of my clan sister? My fathers and mothers spoke of you, they said you joined the Pleasure Cults to escape boredom." I asked suspiciously.

I do not need this nonsense in my life, especially when Slaanesh has its claws close to my throat and I need to thread a needle or I am dead and all I've sown will follow. I would be already out but Gua Bis asked for a favor to look upon her daughter as she buys me time, for she was called in to do her duties and now does both.

"I did and I regret that and I died for it. Now the divine reforged me anew and gave me a second chance thanks to my accomplishments." She sang as truth.

I hate that her explanation is reasonable and she feels remorse for it as she sings to me.

"I am sorry to tell you so, but it is possible it won't be much of a life. Your birth has spooked your parents for they sensed both obscene levels of bloodshed and the touch of the pleasure cults and your mother is currently dealing with my nonsense and giving me a chance at escape, a chance I am wasting to see if my clan will rejoice at the birth of a new daughter or the death of a cultist and vermin."

"Bessar Agail and son of one of the Swords Of Khaine and fo-" she tried to speak but I silence her.

She did not just try to say that name.

"Think, speak or Sing that name and the planet will be depopulated because a divine is watching us and it does not like us." I sang harshly.

She obeyed. Now I knew she was not a cultist for a follower of Slaanesh would not have known that last part, if she did I would be dead.

The only thing that could mess with eldar age nonsense is divine nonsense. I thought as I fed her the red nourishing liquid as I held her in my arms.

"Your future has already been decreed girl, the divine have reforged you as an implement of both murder and craft, have they told you such?"

"Yes, I was told I am to learn a craft and teach others to craft with it from its master and follow his orders."

"My craft, and my apprentice will teach you it. I have just gotten official recognition for it and I do not have the time to teach you. If I am not off this world in half an hour I am dead and the New Divine will kill all my plans and my clan."

All crafts acknowledged by a world need to be presented to the princess or prince of a world, and if none exist that rules it then a council will be made and the craft will be presented to them to do one of three things and I have done so right after the apprenticeship of Cipanni Oiair ended and he became master and made his first Ward of Darkness without my assistance yesterday for today I leave but I still have some business to do.

He's also busy enjoying his first day of marriage in bed and dancing with his wife for his entire clan and me included insisted and his wife would not let him breathe and speak with his mouth to say otherwise for she kept it too busy to do so.

The first thing one needs to do is to show that, yes you have a craft, one that is sufficiently different from others and you need to teach others how to spot it and teach the princess or prince how to tell the difference between it and others. It took us two hours to show and explain how ours work and what makes it unique.

The second thing to do is to create the steps of Ascension that separates Master from the rest as well and provide examples of it

Our steps are pretty simple for all that they are both taxing and paradoxically simple.

1. Novice: Learn to use the two tools that form a gun-sword together at the same time and learn to make two charms or enchantments that another can use and refill with ammo.

This is what we wanted to teach out apprentice but his talent was so obscene we had to make him master.

2. Practitioner: All requirements for Novice but you needed to be able to use 7 such tools.

3. Lesser mind-sword: All requirements for Practitioner but you have to prove you made a new one by yourself beyond it.

4. Master: All requirements for Novice but be able to create a Ward of Darkness.

Yes, the only real requirement for mastery for any practitioner of my art is the creation of a Ward of Darkness and for it you need to accept ten heartbeats of the Dark Soul Pits into your mind and soul at the minimum.

The third thing is simple too, show the princess that you can train someone that fills in all those positions. Our apprentice earned them all.

Do this and now you have an official craft recognized and protected by the Empire of Ten Millions Suns and all must respect you for it and if any infringe on it without following the proper rituals they can and will be hunted for it and have their heads be presented to you as apology.

It's been two hours since I finished the process and I already have sixty, one for each fool that decided to break my works and try to see how they work and then another twenty they taught it to. I asked the Maton to make a necklace of them and put them around a star and show it to everyone who asks of it for there will be more that do so.

"I understand, I will give this art an attempt at respect."

"You will do so, for your soul was reforged in the closest shape Vaul could make it to mine, and the only other shape I know of which is better for it is that of your uncle and future master but his is not suited for War and Bloodshed as your soul, mind and experiences are."

Guns do not exist for Eldar, for they are not a shape recognized by the divine and thus are not used, and so the closest thing to it is a shuriken pistol-sword so it will have to do.

"What are your plans old soul? Know that if they threaten mine that once my clan sister is dead, I will come for you and you know the result of such."

She stopped drinking from the bottle and started trying to be bite my finger, for she was a baby and now must act like it.

He soul trembled. Those like me were not called damned for nothing.

"I wish to retrain to my old power a-"

I stopped her again.

"I do not care for distant plans for after the Birth of the New God for they are too far for me to bother with, for now, and I will see how I can use that then. I am saying more immediate, as in until you reach 100 years old."

She stopped biting my finger and demanded huggies by putting her hands up and reaching for me, which I obliged. Truly Eldar age shenanigans will never stop being funny.

There is a list of expected behaviors for old souls reincarnating into a family, and the first is that they must acknowledge that they are children now, and their lot in life is who they are and both family and old soul must do so.

The second is that for at least fifty years the child must obey and respect their family for it is by their protection they continue to live and if they don't accept that then they can try and be more respectful in their next life.

The third is on the part of the family, they must agree to love and cherish the child in deed, if not in song and let as few as possible to know of the fact that they are an old soul in order to not hold it against them.

This means that the child must act as a child should, and the family must treat them as such and do their best to prevent others from knowing of it and judging them for it. This meant I have to provide gifts as well to hide it and give a soul that has killed gods for longer than primates have existed huggies because she wants to be a child and children get huggies.

Truly and I cannot repeat myself enough, Eldar time shenanigans will never stop being funny even when marred by divine nonsense.

"I find time shenanigans hilarious, do you not?" I asked the old soul as I smiled and tried to awe her young mind but old soul with sword swings of my gun-soul minds as he she flied up and down.

I will give her time to think about it.

"I have no opinion on them."

"Truly? I am the only one in this entire clan that has lived for a second life beyond your own mother. She is on her third, I am on my second and your uncle who is my apprentice is older than both my lives put together and only one of those lives is an Eldar and I am not even 55 yet in this one and my daughter who is older than both my lives put together is set to marry my apprentice who looks up to me and is a bit older than her still. Oh and your clan leader is not even 50 yet for he managed to trick both his mother and myself into his clan. Do you not find such hilarious?"

"Seen worse, created even worse nonsense. I have legally married myself three time in the same day by different methods despite there being laws against it out of boredom. I have done a lot of things out of boredom and now I regret them and wish to do better."

"I see." I sang and I hummed a lullaby her body liked even as the soul continued to be guarded against me.

"I have a task of you that will earn you a favor from me. It can be used however you wish short of asking me to kill myself or others of my trade or family."

I had her full and undivided attention now for such a favor is not easily given, not from the damned.

"I will earn it." She said with conviction.

It would have been far funnier if she didn't demand to be thrown into the air to fly and I did so.

"I have walked as divine a short time ago, I have found a plant I can make tea from that calms the temper of Khaine now, if only by a fraction. A species has developed on the world it is from which has called itself as Mankind." I informed

"Your former species." She realized.

Good, smart subordinates are always useful.

"Yes, they are beloved by the twin sons of Gorkamorka as friends of their children, for they have learned much from each other as they played together and sang their lullabies of War at each other and will soon be ruled by an Anathema that seeks progeny. Your duty is simple, after the Birth of The New God you must deliver a message from me informing the Anathema that Bessar Agail wishes for a meeting. I will be easy to find by then, even if it takes them a bit to find me."

"I will do so, I swear on my soul, I wish to cash in my favor now."

"Speak of it then, if it is useful I will grant it now, if it is not you will have to request another or I will grant it after you have delivered my message."

"Do not tell my parents of my old identity."

"No, that is not a favor for I already planned not to, ask for another."

She stopped and considered it.

"What are your plans for my family?"

"Do you wish for that knowledge to be your favor?" I asked kindly.

She smelled a trap. Good that there wasn't one from me, it is just that the one I'm in is closing around my neck.

"Yes."

"My Wards of Darkness provide protection against the neverborn and require an anti-eldar soul poison made accidentally to fuel them, but which attacks Eldar souls by attacking vulnerabilities in our soul design left there in their rush by the Ancients. I believe they do so by blocking vectors of attack.

I plan to create a vaccine for it and this family is my incubator for them. I planned originally for mine and those of my siblings to be so, but I do not have the time, not with my other plans as I need to regroup with my Brothers and Sisters as there are only Nephews here beyond the four of us and I have no need for them beyond protecting the incubators and their family.

Lestean Bairu's tricking of me earned him my respect and new tools and saved me time which I plan to use and I have already immunized myself and my siblings and with a breeding pair and a clan to protect them on this world, I will see if my solution won't close the vulnerabilities used by the New God to spread itself so, or at the very least decrease its potency."

"You are creating a vaccine for the illness." She said in wonder and hope and joy.

The illness she spoke of was the Madness of Boredom and it afflicted something close to 9 in 10 eldar now, most of them old souls and it continues to spread. Khaine can treat it in his flames as they act as chemotherapy for cancer and Isha nurses the souls back together and not have them dissolve from the treatment. But it is cancer and not a pathogen and so the souls that are cleansed in flame are just as susceptible to it in their next life, despite what Vaul tries in messing with the shape of our sword-souls.

I'm hoping I have found the avenue it attacked us by and that I am closing it and saving my people.

Now she had her confirmation her new family will live if she will listen and I knew she would be a good and filial daughter for she was very happy as she sang for the first time in the joy someone who has just been born should feel.

"Yes, and my apprentice and daughter are my test subjects to see if my poison and vaccine work. If they do then any population descended from them that has the antibodies transmitted and the poison reintroduced every now and then will present an adequate starting point for a population rebound, and my plans are for your family and clan to be its first starting point."

"Why here? There has to be some better worlds for your type of madmen."

"They earned this favor from me, do not ask me why."

She didn't and I continued to throw her in the air as the baby laughed and Eldar babies are very tough even if they are a day old.

"Beyond the delivery of the message, what is your plan for me in these circumstance? It is obvious I was sent here to do your bidding as part of your schemes damned one, but I do not wish to bother with child rearing, I will answer your original question depending on this answer."

"I do not require you to. My daughter knows of my plans for herself and I will inform her of your situation in regards to you in song afterwards. My plan for you if you will accept it is to immunize the Craftworlds for my art is my attempt at a cure and a vaccine.

The morons needs it as they'll represent isolated and well protected bastions for a population rebound if my gambit proves successful."

I spoke with my voice this time.

"Let's put you back to sleep now, you look tired dear."

Her eyes started going sleepy only after I said as such.

I started singing again and so did she as I prepared to tuck her in her crib. She will live.

"I wish to be a dutiful daughter and feel what its like to have loving parents again, it is what I demanded of the Divine before subjecting myself to reforging. I accept the mission."

She is in luck then, for her family will grant her that. I tucked her in gently, my sword turned to protect her and stop looking at her as if she is to die. She would have her chance at being filial daughter and her parents are warned, for my sword has been informed to protect her from all who wish her harm including her parents if they try.

My sword will fail miserably if parents wish to kill their child, but it is not meant to succeed, only inform both of them that I acknowledge her as their true daughter and not vermin.

"You have been granted the best possible place I can think of to have that happen to you, do not worry your mother or father with portents of doom or running, they don't listen and its why I had to slow down my departure so much beyond my injuries to my soul. Just run when the Wards of Darkness start going up if you are still here then. My daughter is preparing her evacuation plans as we speak and is learning to dance across the stars and in the tunnels."

"I thank you for your mercy." She sang in gratitude.

"You know that I have none to give or be thanked for, for I am an Older Brother."


~~~~~~
"Your daughter is to be a dutiful daughter Scarn Laddon, I guarantee it. She is just so cute! She tried to eat my finger!" The Master who-walked-as-god and keeps worlds in terror for days by accident said with a smile and I relaxed.

My home and clan has not been invaded by vermin, but that which I have invited into my family is almost just as dangerous.

The Harlequins sang as my wife and I managed to catch one of the bastards that knew what was going on and why they are here. We now know what we have in our midst and know it wants us to be safe and that this is not reassuring for those like him are never safe. Apocalypses and those who make them by trade are never safe.

But he is family and we are eldar and care not for such things as danger and doom for we survived plenty.

"I thank you for it, clan brother. I know things are rushed with your departure and that my wife is not here to say her farewells but I thank you for all that you have done for my family and clan."

I bowed, he deserved it for he gave my family a lot of joys and songs.

"Good I thank you as well for all that you have given me and I apologize for the scare with the Harlequins of Cegorach, I really told you you shouldn't bother with them."

'He knows.'

I shouldn't be surprised but yet I am.

"It is no bother brother of my wife and dear friend, even if you are also a deceiver." I said with mirth.

The damned do not shiver at your table and all but beg for love, but he and his siblings did and with what the followers of Cegorach said of him I now doubted that those shivers were real.

"I did not deceive you at any point in time for you have no idea what your family's love did to stabilize my mind and soul for the New God attacked it greatly as I ran from the Orphanage. I needed a safe place to be in and to recover from soul attacks, fate manipulation, self mutilation and time paradoxes that have hit me on the same planet in quick succession.

You granted me that warm place to recover in, and did so with warmth and love to me and my younger siblings and for that I will forever be in your debt and know that I truly and deeply love you and Gua Bis, and wish I could have been born your son and not who I am today, because I would have been a happier and a better person. Even as I am now I still crave that which you have freely offered me, but I cannot have it and I am truly sorry for scaring you like this for you do not deserve it."

The young man whose real trade is apocalypses said as he bowed back to me even more deeply than I did and I believed him.

I wish he was my son as well for I know he loved me and my wife as a son did his parents and wished us well as he tricked and deceived man and gods alike to empower our clan with tools and favors to survive what comes.


~~~~~~
Bessar Agail is a monster of death and disruption, that I have foreseen once I knew to look at him. I am thankful he once again decided to not be too forceful or someone caught him in a good mood, or perhaps my new son gave him good tea before he decided to do his final act on my world.

Only a third of my world burns in combat now. If he was not merciful I would not be princess anymore.

My soul burned as it was attacked by faith, my husband at my side to keep me safe and yet I burned in every way but physical and he wept for he knew it and I forbid him from helping in any way shape or form.

It started well, his plan worked and I got a new son out of it, then the 'contractions' happened and suddenly my entire world is a battlefield and I can't let my husband go fight it or we all die and I don't know why.

"My love how did they accomplish this?" My husband asked me.

His name is Siach Chrei and I know I should be using it more, but just thinking of faith makes my soul hurt and so I call him my loved for it is a much better title than his name.

"Which part my love? They did plenty."

My husband meant all of it, but I cannot say so, so he will have to be specific. He knows this too now as I never ask for specifications as I always know what he wished to know and offer it freely.

This is the one exception to my oaths to him, not telling him things that will kill him or at he very least asking for clarification first and letting this be a warming before doing so.

I will still tell him if he insists but I am willing to lose my powers and my blessing if it means my husband lives. I'd be happier for it too, but I must do what I must.

I could feel the shivers in his soul as he realized he asked something that if I give him he will die for it.

"The slaves, the death of the teachers, the chaos as Bessar Agail left, the fact we have a new son." He said and I nodded.

I can answer that, it is not dangerous to speak of.

"The chaos and the freed slaves are favors that-which-walked-as-god was owed by the followers of Cegorach. They have been singing in secret to slaves that once they will swear themselves to Asurmen the Second, named after the First yet who is older than the First and yet is named after him, they will be granted a chance at life and might. The chaos is the result of over forty million former slaves taking on that deal and coming from 12 other worlds, essentially draining them of all slaves and crashing multiple cults schemes and now they scramble for revenge and in doing so made themselves easy to see and kill."

"The death of the teachers was the part of the cover up and personal and is happening due to debts." He realized

Debts in the Empire of Ten Million Suns are tracked. All eldar know exactly who and what they owe to individuals and the Maton make sure they keep track of it. If an individual remains in debt for 100 years straight they and all their descendants will enter bondage and be branded with a silver bracelet.

My new son 'swindled his master' and so master decided to free him and all who follow him.

Seven children have sworn themselves to him that the boy is aware of, that gives him the rank of Sword Lord even as a slave, which as the least important, but universally recognized, lord rank grants him the ability to receive the fealty of others from a distance. This is something my husband does not need to be told for he knows it already.

"The master then went to a Bond holder and promised a personal debt if he agrees to pay for the end of the bondage of our new son and his followers. It should have been eight minor favors he can get back easily for each release, for each were born into it and had no debt for themselves in exchange for a favor from a mighty master of his craft.

He would have been a fool to not take that which was offered." I said and he nodded.

That was the easiest to explain.

You can only pay for the freedom of slaves you own, and if you have them through a bond holder then you can only pay for the slave they lent you. To free them others you do not own, you have to get a bond holder to agree to cover the favors they owe. Their trade is the only one that can do so.

"The fool asked for the favor and demanded the secret to the Wards of Darkness. We was granted it and thus freed the slaves as he screamed in horror and more than two hundred million favors owed died with him to release forty million slaves that were now, while not slaves still bonded servants similar to your Sword-Brothers and Sword-Sisters and their new master is a minor and thus both too young and without enough lands or assets for being a prince." I continued.

Bonded servants are servants which have sworn oaths of allegiance to a lord and while their children are not bound to them they cannot be broken for they were freely given in exchange for a service. For them it was freedom from slavery.

"So, the boy was adopted in the closest princely house that the Maton have calculated would not abuse their position over him, which is us as I have already shown my interest in receiving him as my own in front of his master as I want our family to learn to make the tea that calms Khaine down if only slightly."

"The teachers and their families have been manipulated thanks to the clan of Lestean Bairu into being the sole owners of whatever assets the fool who got killed by the secret he desired owned, and now those that find themselves without slaves and an acute knowledge of where those they can go to for reparations are, decided to rush to kill them for the insult and are killing each other in the streets for it because they are in competition for it."

He had one more question. It was what I could not tell him until the danger has passed even as my soul burned in faith demanding me to act yet I refused and I burned for it.

"I am also not letting you go outside and help with this right now, because something is interfering with fate and if you go outside you will meet with Bessar Agail and one of you will die somehow and I cannot see why because something blocks it and then the rest of us follow. I do not know whatever is doing it but the stench of faith permeates all and divinity is involved for I feel rotten inside for I burn and refuse to keep to my oaths to keep you safe. "

I sank to my knees and begged this time as I looked up at him and he looked at me in fear. I have never once in my life been on my knees.

"Please my love, you can go outside and do your husbandly duties once Bessar Agail and his siblings are not on this world for I do not wish for you and me to die!"

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

"Have each of you told your farewells?" I asked my siblings.

"Yes." Said the first.
"Yes." came from the second
"Yes." Sang the third.

"We have escaped a divine trap that sprung around your scheme older brother." Said my youngest brother.

I did not need to grace that with an answer. I could feel the eyes of the unborn divinity on me now that my soul was Whole again. The godmother of Innia Bris was angry we had denied her her daughter.

Said daughter would have plunged one of the few Eldar bastions standing against her faithful and cause chain reactions that would have decreased the years until said godmother would have been born, and I have instead taken her for my own and turned her against her goddess and godmother.

She knows what I have saved her from now and is willing to assist her family's trade, for we had shown her what we are in secret.

I am healthy in mind and soul again and I know this now, for our souls sing as one and we are once again aware of what we know and can see properly.

Slaanesh is not yet born, it will not be for a long time yet, but she is active and hunting us while keeping things discreet for if she acts too openly the divine will have cause to call for a vote on rescinding a decree which requires a much higher threshold in regard to it than passing one, for she will then be a goddess in full, if not yet born and subject to divine consideration.

If we could provoke her to rash actions we might be able to lift the veil and let Khaine burn the Empire to the ground and kill the baby while it is not yet born. Our civilization would have to be reborn from clone vats but we've done that before.

Unlikely but possible and I see no way how to do such a thing. I create apocalypses and peddle medicine, I do not know how to make children have tantrums.

I have already started the immunization of the population. My apprentice and my daughter will immunize their children and apprentices and eventually the whole clan. Once that happens and if I am right, we'll have a population that does not need to fear having children and dying for it. Rionala Aranna once an adult will do similarly to the craftworlds.

She can't attack our seeds now, not before we are dead and she already acted against us so openly, for while she is not born and for as long as Asuryan-Khaine lives she is still bound by edicts that limit and protect her, for the Divine decree bound the Gods known as true and the dead and not-yet-living. This changes if they act too rashly and too openly and receive legal consideration.

Contractions and 'accidents' are one of the thing the divine need a threshold of evidence before they start acting and Slaanesh is threading the needle between ensuring her birth and not requiring legal consideration for it.

We have no chance of making it happen as we're now in her sight and she can position her minions to kill us, but we'll have to make do and hope we are not worth another of her very limited tantrums or we can find a way to provoke her and pass the threshold.

I looked upon mortal and divine to mock them once again and saw it. There are others that look back at me. Three Older Brothers and Two Older Sisters yet live, we will have to regroup and meet them for the first time.

"Not this time bitch." I said to the Divine that now had to pretend to not be born yet.

She acted like it to not be killed, for she acted as a baby in the womb would and should now, and you can only kill unfilial children after they have been born.

The divine decrees said so and both mortal and divine are bound by it unless the Divine find enough reason to change it.

AN:

Siach Chrei= "Sciath an Chreidimh"→ Shield of Faith
Rionala Aranna= Ríon na n-lanna → Queen of blades.

The queen of blades is a character I half-stole from Weaver Option. She is a badass that fought in the War in Heaven but beyond that they share nothing with each other except the fact they used to be very bored.