Chapter 25:

Chapter 25: Truth is best forgotten for secrets keep one safe.


Farseers and Seers have nothing in common except the tools of their craft.

No single language in the Empire of Ten Million suns has them share words, letters, sounds or concepts in their name as spoken and sang by Eldar, because if any do there will be seers that demand correction with orbital bombardment for the insult. The Followers of Hoeth were kin to Farseers, for we created the craft and we'd still help the Seers with it out of principle and we've done so in the past.

We did not tolerate treachery. Incompetence is excusable, misunderstandings too and mere failure are all forgivable and acceptable depending on the circumstances, treason is not.

Both of them are entirely different crafts that happen to share tools, for while seers look upon what is and inform others to make plans on it, farseers already serve a plan and try to make it work and they don't care for consequences because they were not meant to, as farseers are tools used to learn how to do something, and not why and what that something is.

Seers are the creation of a blessed of Lileath and are the younger and hopefully replacements of the madmen, for Farseers are the creation of those blessed by Hoeth to help him in his duties.

Farseers are starting to stray from the plans of our master in an unexpected twist, as without a master to hold the leash they start thinking themselves their own. They were used to taking orders as they were made for it, but now with our master dead and his corpse reanimated into Cegorach, we have none to issue corrections for now and when he returns he will purge them because he does not tolerate treachery either.

A pity, for they are better at seeing the future, they're just much narrower in scope and tend to miss things beyond what they need for a plan to succeed.

I looked at the daughter of the princess that spoke up and asked for knowledge. I was still annoyed at the Harlequins for refusing to listen to their father and try to bother me with failed schemes and things I don't need to do, but they are loyal and Cegorach has manipulated them into it for that is his nature.

"I will explain the basics to all of you in a lesson, for you are now my students and I your teacher, and depending on what oaths you swear knowledge will be removed from your minds to protect you and more given to ensure you can fulfill them.

But first, please allow me to finish my conversation with my nephews for they are foolish and their uncle needs to set them straight." I said.

None talked back or asked for clarifications and did anything but send a massive wave of acknowledgement. I will need to change that. I need slaves and servants not maton, I have no use for defective tools now, even if they continue to be loyal.

"Are the five of you capable of helping me in my schemes and follow orders or do you have orders and schemes to follow up on from your father?"

"We have orders, we were given leave to try and convince you and when we fail are to return to them."

"Do so." I ordered.

They did and killed themselves, their souls taken to one of the trees of Isha in service of Cegorach to have their bodies remade as the old ones turned to dust.

"They yet live, Eldar have means of remaking our bodies after death provided certain conditions are met, you don't have access to it so please don't try." I informed my students.

"The woman who asked the question, introduce yourself for you are to be my star pupil for this lesson and will respond to my questions. Your mother, siblings, cousins and father will sort through the questions of the other students for the useful ones and to avoid repetition and send them to you to ask. Because you showed initiative you may ask whatever question you wish and answer to during my lesson, but you will also be the only one to answer my questions. Do you understand?"

The girl trembled but obeyed. She moved in the front and stood down where only dust now remained.

"I do Master, I am 'Dancer of the Waves' daughter or royalty now."

I did not like that answer. Her mother introduced herself as princess, not queen. Maybe it was a miss-translation as scrap always simplifies their former languages.

"I will send you a list of concepts in song 'Dancer of the Waves', you are going to respond to me with the closest words or descriptions you have for them."

She nodded and I sang.

"Queen, princess, noble, Queen, Queen, Trash Heap, Sacrifice, oath, sacrifice, we have no words or sentences to describe that, queen, princess, divine, love, translates partially as marriage and it is mixed concepts I do not know." Were her response.

'Fuck, she is a queen to her people and her people have crowned her as such.' I sang to my siblings.

I did not want to be married, not to a woman that was already so and had children and a husband.

'Maybe we can treat it as an adoption?' Guraith sang in secret.

I did not think of that and I am thankful that I might have a way out. Royalty has parents and they need not be royalty themselves so that saves me a lot of time. I sang him my gratitude for his idea, that could work.

Two new children and some grandchildren to adopt is easier to deal with than marriage and barging in into one that is already happy and fruitful.

"The new queen and her husband is to come and sit near their daughter, I am not angry, just annoyed at the fact both of you might have tricked yourselves into marriage to me and I need to make some things clear, you have nothing to apologize for, so that's an order to not apologize for this situation." I spoke to those in the back

The two idiots did so and stood near their daughter by her side and I addressed the father.

"I was informed your mother is a princess, why is she a queen now?" I asked very much annoyed.

"She was crowned as such when she managed to negotiate our bondage. We can change her title if it displeases you or kill her and not crown her replacement as such."

"Only kings and queens can change the title of that which Eldar call as such and they only answer to the Divine and perhaps other kings and queens, and if you killed them then I'd need to find every single one that is related to her for nine generations to prevent them from being considered as such. And you fools go back in line I'm not doing it!" I said angrily once saw what they were trying to do.

The fools I would have to kill if I wanted to do what I talked before were already moving forward to accept their deaths.

I don't kill my tools, not if they are loyal. I hate this world more by the heartbeat.

"I have already been introduced to 'She who sings of the beauty of the seas and waterfalls' but not to you, please introduce yourself." I addressed the man.

"I am 'Mighty Tide', husband of 'She who sings of the beauty of the seas and waterfalls', would you please elaborate on the aspect that you spoke of, in regards to marriage Master?"

"The things Eldar call Kings and Queens answer only to the divine and each other, and while I may be equal in rank and part of the same organization as a Divine I am not one, meaning that I am now either married to both of you, as you agreed to it when your people crowned your wife queen and she was my slave, or I have adopted you as my own and I need to learn which is which."

"I do not know what adoption means but if my form displeases you I can easily change it to one of a gender and looks you approve of."

"I do not wish to be married to a man, but first I need further explanation as perhaps the word I use is simply not one you have for such, as there are plenty to describe it and maybe I can get you fools out of it if you practice it and both of you get to continue being as you are.

How do you deal with the abandoned children of slain adults? Adoption is the means by which one takes children which are not their own into the household and makes them their children. It is the only way I know to not have to marry you."

"They are given to their uncles or aunts to raise, but they do not become their children, merely nephews and nieces to love and care for. I will speak with the song-keepers to change me so." He said.

He did not even look sad about it, if anything he looked relieved they had an easy solution.

Marriage is simple in the Empire, you have to be married to make a home together and for that you need to have children, and you can only have that between man and woman. Sure you can adopt and some do so, but to do so at least one must be a woman and another a man to be considered married and stay so. One or two nights of 'experimenting' don't count, that's considered normal as long as it only lasts for a few days at most and changing genders permanently is a classic method of saying you want a divorce even if it does not mean you get divorced unless you stay like that for one hundred years.

If two individuals are too attached to their forms to make the changes then they can find a third of the right gender and have them marry each other to have a family, but all parts need to be equal in this arrangement as far as child rearing is concerned.

This sort of nonsense I am experiencing now is why I want to crack their society and traditions into pieces and fix the useful things into a new one and turn it into something that will give me less headaches.

I looked on the man who thought of his body as little more than a tool to be changed and took in his looks to remember them. It is the last day he will have them for after all.

Blonde hair, soft features on the face and a rounder face than most Eldar but still harsh by human standards. He had large muscles and a towering frame compared to most Siren men I could see. It was obvious it is a body he had crafted until it was all that he wanted out of it and he threw it away without a second thought. He even wore armor unlike any other eldar on this trash heap.

I cannot think or say it enough, but I hate this word and the Sword Clans too stupid to not conquer it when they have the means within reach.

I bowed to the man deeply. He was very surprised by it.

"I thank you for it and truly apologize that you have to do this, if you would have told me you planned to make her queen we could have avoided it. I am sorry you have to lose your form, as you obviously hold it dear and have worked so hard to make it fit yourself, but I will not have a husband, it is just not who and what I am and I do not have the time for pregnancy to let you remain who you are."

It was true, I want to keep to the male form and I do not wish to have sex with a man and have to handle family issues with one half of the family being slaves and the other not while such, with all of them coming from the same womb as well, and if I had to accept being married under such conditions it would make my marriage miserable, and more importantly unstable.

Their society and situation already made them one big trauma away from breaking, judging by how willing they were to kill each other now that they've found safety in order to not lose it. I do not need that nonsense in my family, nor do I have the time to fix it while it is unstable, and I do not have time to be pregnant either and I'll need to give him children as well to be equal in my duties as his wife if I were to turn myself a woman.

It's easier and saves more time if he just turned into a woman and got pregnant and raised the children with his soon to be sister-wife.

He looked pained as well.

"It is what it is master, I'll adapt and die well if needed be."

I sighed. I've done this a lot on this world already and I have only been here for a few days.

'At least things are going fast.'

I cannot express how much I wish to depopulate this world of all Eldar life and how easy it would be and judging by the song of my sibling they wished for it too.

Why do I see incompetence harming the things I care for? And now him-who-is-soon-to-be-her and his wife are things I have to care for, for they tricked themselves into my family and did such with unnatural ease and no lies.

"You will live, and you and your people will learn to regret that which I have asked you to agree with. All that are promised what I and the Followers of Hoeth grant them always do."

They did not seem to care, they were thankful solutions were easy to come to even if they did not like them.

I turned to the other fool.

" 'She who sings of the beauty of the seas and waterfalls' I called you here in case you lied to me and damned your husband to abandon who he is, and punish you for it. You did not so I have no reason to do so, and as such you can go back to to the rest of your family both of you. I will begin my lesson in full now."

They both did and never once turned their back to me as they danced in the air to do so.

I turned to my star pupil and only one of my slaves besides her own mother that has proven she has some initiative.

" 'Dancer of the Waves', as my now slave-child I grant you the name of Rinceo Natton*, once I finish breaking your society into pieces and making a mockery of all that you consider tradition, all individuals will have a spoken name. Until then you will be the first as I will give your family names later as well."

"I thank you for it Master, I will treasure it."

"Good, now in order to start the session, I need to know, in the simplest terms you can explain it in, what is the relationship between space and time to your people? What is the 'War in Heaven'? And who are the 'Yngir' and the 'Old Ones'?"

"Reality is a three dimensional space and one of time, another exists thanks to interaction with the Empyrean and allows for Nonsense to happen.

The War in Heaven is the first conflict of our species and was fought against the Yngir who were our enemies and I know nothing of them.

The Old Ones are our makers and those who forged our gods and us from them."

I nodded at it, about as wrong as I expected

"Excellent now I know what I'm dealing with, all of that is half correct at best and only useful depending on what you need to do."

I didn't think it was possible to have a more captive audience but it seems that now I do.

"Reality as we know it is indeed three dimensions of Space and one dimension of Time that things move through, but it is half of Existence, the other half being Unreality and it is made out of Three Dimensions of Time and One of Space. Do not worry about it for they act the same and we just perceive them differently,

You can think of Reality as simply two different worlds that are at war and have been forever at such with the war going hot and cold every now and then."

"What is a cold war teacher?"

"A cold war is a war that has ended in a temporary truce but in which both sides are simply preparing for the resumption of violence, do you have no experience with the concept?"

"No master, we barely know what war is from seeing the conflicts between the Sword Clans and The Sword Cults. The only thing we have experienced is being hunted, and the only time we deal with our own people is to accept those that no longer have their own clans and wish to join ours."

I am not going to pretend I'm not disappointed they don't know this.

'It would take us a day to empty this world of Eldar life and I'm sure we can run faster than the Divine can arrange nonsense for it, are you certain we cannot do so older brother?' Marsa asked.

She started to like them.

'We can't.'

But I was tempted.

"I see, disappointing but I'll take my frustration on Eldar, I'll just have to raise it from 1 in 20 being killed by the time I leave to 1 in 15. I will explain how after the initial lesson is done, I have much to cover."

"Yes Master."

I could hear songs of joy and fear from the sirens as I said that.

"Good now the 'Old Ones' are indeed that which you said, but we existed before they forged us and our gods into their swords so that is the least incorrect you know.

The 'Old Ones' were masters of this part of Reality and the 'Deep Ones' their equivalent in Unreality and the War in Heaven was a series of wars and conflicts in which both sides tried to kill the other for some reason I can't imagine, not like we even need to interact with Unreality as the Empyrean is the connection between our two realms where Existence can have Three Dimensions of Time and Three of Space at the same and creating lines to not cross is easy as we have nothing the other could want or need, but fought they did."

'I really need some tea.' I whined.

'I'll make some brother." Offered Aesan.

'Thank you, I can feel my temper spiking.'

"The Yngir were one of the 'Deep Ones' vectors of attack on reality and they were a disease more than a foe, and us the means to treat the symptoms until Gorkamorka, father of Gork and Mork and their children that we now call orks could be finished and act as a cure.

Unfortunately it came too late and the 'Old Ones' died with the 'Deep Ones' as well and the War in Heaven ended as the Empyrean screamed and Reality and Unreality became one and only their weapons and their remains managed to survive the conflict. It happened because the Necrons, slaves of the disease known as the Yngir managed to trick absolutely everyone, and I truly mean and I respect them for it, everyone. They tricked us, they tricked Gorkamorka they tricked the 'Old Ones', they tricked their masters and they tricked the 'Deep Ones' in such an obscenely risky and well thought out gambit that it ended the War in Heaven in a tie as both sides got annihilated in a heartbeat.

I and every single individual that know of this granted them the title of Winner for their Achievement, and it was one the Eldar will never be able to topple, but there are no true winners as nobody got what they wanted, only survivors and we managed to recover first."

'Tea.' Marsa offered.

'Thank you.'

I drank it, I was no longer as willing to empty this world of all eldar life except scrap in a day.

"What followed next was what I can only describe as a Time War, that the Followers of Hoeth fought against the 'Eternal Reign of Silence over Tombs and Crying Stars' of the Necron, where two of the their Three Triarchs that were left to rule after the Silent King fled in exile, died and the last triarch, One Trazyn the Infinite negotiated their surrender.

This war took Two million years in real space to solve and it ended with the Followers of Hoeth offering them a deal. They surrender and agree to help us make an apocalypse for our plans when we need them. When that is done we will remake their bodies from the living metal ones into long lived flesh ones that are comfortable and safe to use, craft them a Resurrection system similar to the one used by the Divines and they accept to lose all worlds and territories they held before the Apocalypse and during the War in Heaven and relocate to one of the lesser clusters near the Great Wheel and accept vassalage to the Pantheon and the Empire of Ten Million Stars if one does not exist at a given time but the other does."

"Any questions?"

"Who is Hoeth, we serve his followers but we never heard of him or her, we always thought Cegorach was the oldest but you claim it not to be so."

"Hoeth is the oldest of the Eldar Pantheon and the first to be made. His domains are: Knowledge, Planning, Song, Trickery, Apocalypses, Wisdom, Loyalty and Terror, albeit terror to the enemies only. He was made to be the only one who is the most like the Old Ones and ensure that there's always plans to be made to deal with issues and find out how they can be implemented as Asuryan-Khaine were to decide important objectives.

Cegorach is the youngest god and second made after the War in Heaven after Lileath, which is why we call her sister and I call him brother. He was made after the decree separating Mortal from Divine and was made from the Corpse of Hoeth who needed a tool to deal with the New God and lacked other means to make one while the other was gestating so he killed himself and together with Vaul made a new one from his own corpse. You may ask questions without prompting."

"You claim you killed the New God several times before, why is she not dead and staying such?"

I drank more tea, Marsa kept refilling and presenting it to me as I stood. My new daughter knew what questions to ask.

"Enemy action, similar to how the 'Old Ones' had us to help with enemy nonsense so did the 'Deep Ones' have their tools to assist that call themselves 'Followers of the Vortex', albeit they're dead now, even if they're still screaming about it as we decided we had enough of their nonsense. Slaanesh, which is what is always its name, was a god nobody wanted and so it was aborted but it was born infected with a Soul Virus called Boredom, not the emotion but a cancerous thing that turns all other emotions into that emotion.

We did not know this and failed to burn the remains properly, and we've been trying to find a way to do so since then because it keeps coming back, so after deliberations we've decided to let it be born, turn it not Eldar enough to no longer have access to our souls once it finishes eating the Pantheon and don't worry they had that happen to them before, they'll be fine, then restart the Empire of Ten Million Suns."

"Will we survive it?"

"Maybe, that's the original one but we have others in the works that will do worse to the Empire of Ten Million Stars and our species even as we'll rebuild it afterwards, wouldn't be the first time we exterminated our species to deal with nonsense."

Ah, all consuming horror and terror, they realized what they sold their souls to now or at least so I thought. The terror left quickly as they sang to each other and was replaced by that which I did not expect.

'Wait... what?' All four of us sputtered at their reaction.

We did not expect joy and cheers. Nobody cheers when they hear this.

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

I looked upon my daughter, Rinceo Natton and I am very proud of her for being the first to be named if not as proud as my people are of me.

The explanation of what which we serve was frightening, but the idea that the Eldar will go extinct even if temporarily filled me and my people with joy.

I received an obscene level of gratitude from my people for granting them a master that wishes to exterminate our predators and whose organization has done so in the past. Even my soon-to-be-sister-wife cheered and thanked me for it, all his sadness at the fact he will have to turn into a woman lost too and he thanked me for it.

'I am the best queen of our people.' I sang with pride once again.

The cheers of my people sang and spoke agreed.

Our new masters didn't seem to think so or perhaps it meant we did not cheer hard enough.

"Is there something wrong Master? Are we not cheerful enough?" My daughter asked as she noticed it.

The rest of our people redoubled our cheers to please and thank them for what they offer us.

"Yes, it is, we have never expected this reaction, nobody had it before, but I expect the only Older Sister who was of your people is responsible for it."

"You consider one of our own your peers?" My daughter asked.

"Yes, the woman known as Salara-Sao was the only one of your people to join the Followers of Hoeth and did so as a senior servant of my master as an Older Sister which is equal to me in rank and second only to the Masks of Hoeth of which none remain. She is the reason we have made this world to be as it is."

"We will treasure her memory and know her as the greatest of our people to ever live. We beg of you to tell us more of her."

I was inundated with questions similar to this and I didn't even time to send her any before she asked it.

'I'm proud of you my daughter.' I sang to her again.

"Salara-Sao is or was, depending on what's going on among the Time Walkers now the only scrap, which is what all species that diverge in form and not souls from eldar are, to join the follower of Hoeth. She crafted our plans for your species and the design of this planet and others like it so you would prosper and be mighty and have an easy time on it to be picked up by any brothers of the Followers of Hoeth for our current mission to kill Slaanesh permanently by the command of Hoeth."

We were created for deicide by the command of the divine, we were not Forsaken our god and creator is merely dead and we must bring him back to life to thank him for it.

"But we are not mighty kin of our creator and our father god."

"You are capable of surviving on this world and have civilizations despite being considered animals and hunted for sport, for without the Maton this world and others like it would be empty of eldar and yours to rule, something you can still do with the Maton present if only under the orders of an Eldar."

WHAT! THIS WORLD WAS MEANT FOR US?

Our people screeched as one if for different reasons.

"Silence, only my star pupil may speak for this lesson, so if you want to ask questions you will do so through her but I will explain." It was the first time he was angry and we didn't care, we needed to know.

We stopped and eagerly awaited.

"To answer your question yes, your form as scrap meant you developed great ability with manipulating water and the most likely places for settlements to form are both near places more likely to have clouds near them or directly above a fresh water reservoir beneath them connected to tunnels to a river network you would be able to easily swim through unnoticed. You would be able to make an obvious play at smashing cities from the sky and have it be the scream of their death, and as the cities try to defend themselves from it the Aquifer would shatter and destroy wards and defenses and kill them turning it into the blade as they drowned and died.

Or you can do it the other way around and have the Aquifer be the voice of doom and the Clouds the blade for such is the way of Hoeth when you shout from one side and hit from the other."

The more he spoke the more we realized what he said made sense as we looked upon what we know of the geography of our world and we could see it. Our new god-who-is-old-but-we-forgot and our creator prepared an Apocalypse for the people they had created as their birthright, and made sure we would enjoy it.

"We swear our souls to Hoeth and the Followers of Hoeth for all time and promise that we will Resurrect him or die trying, and in the same breath beg of you to not remove from us the knowledge that we have not been Forsaken." We sang as one.

And we meant it, for our new God was dark and terrible, and knew that we would love him for it.


AN:
Rinceo Natton= Rinceoir na dTonn → Dancer of the Waves

Salara-Sao= Slabhra na Saoirse→ Chain of Freedom