Chapter 33:

Chapter 33: Princely favors are not cheap, but simple to get.


The World of Clashing Blades is a dump and it will burn and drown at the same time.

This I have foreseen for I am a farseer and such is my skill.

Its end will come because the damned demand it to be so, and I am now forced to stay here due to a debt I owe my now departed mistress whom I had to abandon to look after herself when every single instinct of my soul and all my visions told me I would die if I stood to look after the woman who taught me to See through the Skeins of Fate.

In retrospect it would have been preferable to the monotony I have been inflicted upon coming to this world, but the woman which had taught me to see has earned this favor of me and so I do so. At least her last apprentice looked after her properly, even if he decided to stay a seer as opposed to becoming a farseer.

This world is one of morons whose sole purpose in life is to swing a blade and they will wax poetically about doing so as I burn them with my flame thrower.

"My liege, it is as you have foreseen, the king of beasts is at our gate with only two others with him as you have foreseen." One of the fools calling themselves my warriors sang.

His greatest ability was to play with a blade, be it made out of wraithbone, his own fleshy one or that of others and in that he had one talent more than everyone else on this dump.

"Of course I have foreseen correctly, bring the king of beasts to me, and be very polite as you do so." I sang to him.

I cannot wait to leave this world, provide whatever favor I need to give to him then go and see if I cannot repay my favor to another on the craftworld Anaen then see if I can't find a lovely one to settle on, or perhaps an Exodite world for while their technology might be lesser than that of the empire, I long for any sort of intellectual stimulation and only fools will choose to stay in the empire as doom approaches.

I have come to this world 600 years ago, I adapted and learned to deal with the nonsense and in 100 years became a prince in this dump.

It was insultingly easy as well, just win some conflicts, claim that I have contributed to the 'Grand Argument' by uniting people under my reign so that the 'old gods' dominion over the Eldar will be remain. Absolute nonsense, but easy to do when your opponents know nothing but to swing a blade.

Nothing these fools do matter, nothing they achieve here will contribute to anything and no amount of whining on their part about respect and piousness will grant them anything but derision from me, for it is more than it would earn them otherwise which is nothing.

They would gain noting because they are nothing and they are nothing because they have achieved nothing and they have achieved nothing because they know nothing useful and they know nothing useful because the only thing they know is how to swing a blade.

My debt to the woman which had raised me and trained me was simple. Be here when one of the members of her organization comes to burn and drown a world and ensure they receive a princely favor while ensuring one creature dies.

I have already killed the creature, now all that remains is the favor and in order to not bother with nonsense I decided to become a prince and just grant it myself. I had foreseen it would lead to less nonsense but all it did was make me crave it.

"My prince, why do we treat with the beast king?" A woman's voice interrupted.

Iraisa Aiunne* was a particularly bland woman by eldar standards in her look at least. She had red hair, a chest barely worth mentioning for she could use it for little, hips that were more bone than flesh and green eyes. You could throw her in any city and were bound to find someone more interesting to look at than her.

I looked upon her with the same bored eyes I look upon my domain.

"Dance like a monkey on swings." I ordered.

She got naked and disrobed in a heartbeat, for monkeys do not wear clothes naturally, and started to dance and balance herself on all-but-hidden climbing holds as she swung her body, which is the best use she could put her body to right now.

She wasn't here for her looks, but because she is one of the few individuals whose mind has not atrophied from swinging a sword, and now she actually decided to ask a question, a question for which she now pays me to find the answer to.

"Stop." I ordered.

She stopped dancing when she was standing upside down and now must stay as such until I answer her question.

I left her there for ten heartbeats before answering.

"We treat with the beast king because he plans to destroy the cults and they are willing to not hunt the Sword Clans to extinction and I would rather this world be cleansed of the sword cults, even if it ends being ruled by beasts." I answered.

That was a partial truth at best and the lies started from his very title, for he is not the king of beasts, but the Lord Husband to a Queen of Beasts or the Brother-Husband to the actual King Of Beasts for if he was the king I would not need to grant him a favor for kings stand above princes. I also was ambivalent to this world remaining inhabited by eldar even if I truly wished the cults dead.

She stopped swinging like an animal now.

"I thank you for answering me, my prince."

"You are most welcome my vassal. Now please try and make yourself presentable to a distinguished guest even if I know it is difficult for you."

The woman was barely presentable physically, nothing I could do about that and she actually considers that body of hers presentable. I stopped trying to get her to change it, she likes it and I can't fix that sort of mental damage.

The beasts, or Sirens as they call themselves, are eldar in soul still, even if the Maton no longer recognize them as such but the Maton can go dismantle themselves and the Empire would be better for it. If they call something a queen or king then that something is the peak of what an Eldar can be, for he or she has the willing and eager obedience of an eldar culture.

All lords obtain their lordships through personal oaths given through the willing submission of their people or by tricking them into becoming their subjects, and if they earn the adoration and submission of a culture or at least 10 million eldar they become princes and princesses.

However, if they make themselves seem so great, so untouchable or achieve something of such greatness that it leads an entire culture to bow as one and agree that they themselves as a whole are lesser than the single individual in question then they become kings and queens.

One siren managed to make themselves such to her people and I could not try and break the monotony with them, but I am not dealing with them now but with their spouse and while I cannot be disrespectful to royalty without having the blades of Hoec cutting my head off and offering it to the royal in question as an apology, their spouses are fair game.

"Presenting a petitioner to his lordship Prince Lammor the Wise, farseer of The World of Clashing Blades and Petty Master of a Petty city!" The same warrior that sang to me of the coming of the 'east king' spoke.

'Mistress Salara-Sao, I am sorry for not looking after you in your final days and I thank young Ulthuan for doing so in my stead. I know you do not approve of my path and would curse me for what I have turned your teachings into but with this I fulfill my last debt to you.' I sang in hidden prayer.

She is the only thing left that would elicit an honest prayer from me and this will be my last.

The husband of the Royalty of Beasts entered my throne room and he was nothing special.

Four blessings of Khaine and the dark hair of a Whisper of Khaine, a holo-field that has been telling all Maton to leave him alone and not look upon him that hides an entire arsenal. The only interesting thing about him were his eyes which were the same grey color as those of my Mistress.

"Good good, now do a backflip!" I ordered.

If he wishes for me to hear his petition he will have to entertain me for a bit, which is a light price for keeping me waiting in this dump for centuries.

~~~~
The divine and the mortal sides of the Empire of Ten Million Suns are deeply intertwined and this is the only reason our plan can work, for the Followers of Hoeth are considered part of Military Intelligence of the Armada of the Shattered Stars.

During the War in Heaven and all other wars and conflicts since then, the Followers of Hoeth were the chief tacticians of the Empire and the Pantheon and its external intelligence apparatus and we have kept to this purpose up until our god and patron killed himself to deal with the crisis that is Slaanesh.

Our purpose was simple, find external threats and then find a way from stopping them being as such. If it's through diplomacy, armed conflict or intrigue it matters not, it is the purpose of the organization I'm a part of to ensure that it happens and do that while having a few other less glamorous but just as important duties such as guarding knowledge and making sure that Orphanages continue to be running.

Now… not so much or perhaps little is more appropriate.

We've been gutted by Slaanesh and a host of other issues and without our god to help with recruitment of Masks and provide patronage and guidance to us we've had to get creative with our plotting and took more tasks and responsibilities on our backs. None of us thinks he would approve of what we've had to do but we'll apologize once he's back and seek to make whatever amends we could, for we have gone far beyond our mandate.

The other gods don't care, no that is not quite right because if anything they approve of it. But while we acknowledge their authority we do not serve their orders nor are they our superiors, so their opinion while appreciated matters little to us except the fact that we need them to be happy with us so we retain our military ranks and immunity.

Our military ranks and position allow us to provide our siren 'auxiliaries' with recognized military surplus gear, turning them from beasts into valuable assets to military operations and it is this distinction that protects them from Maton reprisals as they continue to skirmish and protect their migration paths towards what they were promised to be their salvation.

The gear in question is the holofields myself and my siblings have been making and distributing to the Sirens for they do not spoof maton sensors, as nothing we can make does so, for holo-fields do not work to prevent Maton detection for they exist to spoof weapon's fire. Our holo-fields are a special and old model that simply informs the Maton that a military operation is happening in an area and to vacate it and not interfere.

We can make better than them, but none of that which we can make are recognized as military surplus and thus our people need to deal with subpar tools.

We have been given far too much to do and we're stretched thin.

We were not meant to subject our people to apocalypses, for that is Khaine and his Murderships job and still we have to do so from time to time.

We were not meant to handle civilian governments and their creation, that is Asuryan and Lileath's job. Now we treat with them, destroy them and create them as needed.

We were not meant to interfere in internal intelligence operations, that is Hoec's and his ilk's job and now we need to hunt down things in the shadows beyond having to hunt them far from home as well.

Now we have to do all that and more for we have been turned from Military Intelligence into deniable assets and we are now damned without a god to provide directions and protect us from the other divines giving us more to do, for we are damned and while Cegorach would be in theory our new liege he is my peer and thus cannot claim that we serve him and keep the divine from giving us more work to do.

None of us want this nonsense, I would like to retire already and I am only 60 years old and I despise what I have to do, but I was given a home and a duty to it and so I must continue dealing with the nonsense those living in it subject me to.

I have regretted my duty only once before, when I tried to enter the city where I would meet a new friend and apprentice in through the wrong entrance and puked all over my clothes for it.

The second time I have been brought to regretting my duty is right here and right now, as I deal with the single idiot that is willing to provide me the favors I require for my plans and because of that I cannot yet kill the bastard.

Entering the city was easy, as it seems we were expected and so we had to deal with no stupidity and only some very polite guardians up until I was brought to the throne room and seen what I am dealing with.

"Farseer prince Lammor and rightful overlord and prince of 'The Jade City', I am Bessar Agail, master of my craft, filial disciple of the Laughing Blade and son of the Silver Hand. I have come here to request a princely favor so that the people of my lovely noble wives be born with citizenship of the Empire of the Ten Million Stars and the righteous stewardship of the Divine Phoenix King." I addressed the shit stain in front of me with a smile I did not feel after an hour of humiliations.

I hate farseers, I truly and deeply hate them.

Farseers betrayed our people, they betrayed the designs of my fellow Older Brothers, Older Sisters and our younger siblings and nephews. I have read far too many stories of people I would have met in the future or who I will not get the chance to meet being killed by the bastards machinations to ever trust them.

They are the reason the Followers of Hoeth have lost the last former Mask of Hoeth and our eldest sister. They are the reason we are forced to let the Empire burn right now as opposed to trying other plans and before we exterminated their Council of Farseers we were hunted down like animals in the shadows and nearly died as an organization before we even realized it was happening.

I have read too many last wills of people who wished me well and gave me a home and a hand in friendship and family and recounted adventures I will no longer experience for the first time with them in the future to ever like them. All thanks to the fucking farseers deciding to stop a psychic planning chart and think they are the one that should be making the plans.

It is why my organization favors Lileath's chosen and faithful so much, and why we are willing to help them in their feud with the farseers, for her Masks and Seers are the reason we still exist and can peddle our trade. They have earned so many debts from us that all one of her followers has to do to get us to help them is ask and planets will burn or be prevented from doing so. It'll take us a million years to repay them at this rate as they avoid us to preserve the favors we've made.

The farseers have done and become all that they are because they thought they knew best, because they had a plan and ideas that their own ego allows them to dictate the direction of our civilization and they saw us as threat.

And now after all of that I have to request a favor, a princely favor at that, from the abomination.

"Oh how cute how cute! Pirouette for me spin and spin and spin!" The not yet corpse sang.

I have been dealing with his petty abuse of power for an hour already and I had not managed to get a word in until a few minutes ago.

I obeyed and did so, for one does not disobey a prince when they come to ask for a mighty favor. I burned his features in my mind as I allowed none of my burning hatred for him to show.

He had the physique of warrior, his eyes were a burning red that burned with his gift and his hair an almost shining silver. The only thing that would have made it worse was if he were smiling.

He was not smiling, if anything he looked bored as I spun around and my blades stood kneeling behind me as he held court.

"Enough." He said.

I stopped as I faced him.

"You wish for a princely favor to allow the beasts citizenship, I will not only allow it but provide my blessing to it on two conditions," The thing said.

A princely blessing was not necessary but it would allow us to make granting the people of my wives status as a secondary species, because a princely blessing is a mark of faith in the good character of another. If it is given by a prince willingly it serves to provide those that receive it one strike on losing their citizenship or facing reprisal for severe crimes.

'This shit stain knows what we're planning.' I thought in anger.

If it was anything that could see through what we're doing it would be a farseer.

His court started whispering, I did not care for the opinion of whatever things looked at farseers as lords.

"Ask them wise prince and I will make it so." I replied in a servile tone as I bowed deeply.

'As soon as I do so you will die.' I thought in the privacy of my heart.

"The first is that you will write me a letter of introduction to Taraithe Tagasta, for I know you have met her before and she knows of you and you can grant me a letter that can grant me an audience." The farseer asked of a thing he should know not about.

I considered it, I really would have rather killed the bastard but this was easy to do. I can't kill him now for he wished for a letter that would allow him an audience and he can't have an audience if he's dead by my hand.

"I will do so wise and generous prince, albeit I will ask you that you do not read the letter before delivering it to her, also I doubt she wishes to hear my song again so you will find her in a poor mood." I said and bowed again.

"Good, her mood is irrelevant I only need her to listen to my words, the second task is that you kill the perfidious Laneea Dega." the slime said.

His court was now silent, silent and afraid for I was asked to kill a monster that has killed heroes before.

"I am new to this world mighty prince, I do not know where to find her." I said.

She was one of the cult's princesses but I knew little beyond it. It mattered not, she will die anyway.

"I will provide a map and directions as well to her territory but before that here, your reward. Have them swear loyalty to the Phoenix King when you meet them and then they should be able to handle it. My servant will also provide pen and paper for the letter." He said as he threw a token at me.

It was the token of princely favor, and even if he lost his titles, this would still apply for it is a favor already given that I must specify.

It is the only type of favor that would prevent me from seeking revenge for my humiliation after I have done as he asked, for the madman knows not only my plans and what I am and my ways.

I can't and won't repay the greatest favor a prince could provide and that he did so before I rendered services with hunting him down like an animal. I had standards after all, and I'm not a farseer.

"I thank you kind prince." I said as I received the token and the pen and paper.

I started infusing my writing with my memories, memories the craftworlder hero would remember as I explained to her that the farseer wished to see her and had provided services to me in order to write this letter of introduction. I had also told her that he has provided a princely favor for this act even if he himself was no longer a prince when he reached her.

I then sealed the letter and put it into a cylindrical container that I sealed with the smile she painted on my face.

I gave the cylinder to the prince directly, then I bowed and sang my thanks again before ordering my blades to follow me. One of his servants ad given my blades a map as we left.

I had a princess to kill.

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

"Thank the divine we still live." My prince ordered as his latest petitioner left and the door closed.

He still stood on his silver throne with the same bored face he has every day and in the same golden robes. His sword was in his sheet and his flame thrower on his left arm as always.

The court did as ordered so even if we did not understand why, for we could have taken him, especially without his beast armies.

I have been tricked into this miserly man's court for close 400 years and been trying to oust him from his throne for 300. I, and every single individual that just pretended to thank the gods for our survival most likely prayed for his doom in our hearts.

I know I did.

"Iraise Aiunne, do you still wish for my crown?" The farseer prince asked.

'Is he going to mock me again?'

"I still do my prince." I responded and prepared for mockery.

I have been trying to get it for 300 years but the madman kept me from it while mocking me every day for it.

He had earned it from the previous prince through a way none would speak of and has been toying with his city ever since and kept it on the edge of discontent and open rebellion. The only reason people remained in his city or call him prince is because of his military ability that turned the old loose collection of towns and villages into a mighty city before he took the title from the one who he had helped create it with.

"Good, I name you my heiress now. Know that I have three bastards from two mothers who hate my guts, so make sure you find them masters or crafts outside of this world and allow me and those willing to leave with me safe passage to the Webway and by tomorrow you'll be sitting on this chair. I've repaid my debt to my junior apprentice and Mistress for leaving our Mistress alone, so this world is no longer my problem as I'll go live on a craftworld." My prince said.

What? This miserly madman will just give me his position like that? What? Why and what is that nonsense about debts?

"I will do so my liege, and in fact I am already making arrangements, but if I may ask why you have taken this course of action?" I asked.

I was doing as he asked and sang instructions to my warriors and allies, for only a fool would say no to that, but I did not understand why he was doing what he is doing, from giving the king of the beasts the favor to turn the sea beasts into citizens, from humiliating him so lightly to providing payment before services were rendered and now leaving quickly afterwards.

"You will not listen regardless to what I tell you, just know that the thing that just left us wants to kill me, and it's more capable of doing so than this entire planet put together and that whatever it is planning I won't survive it if I stay here. Now do as I ordered and next time you go to sleep it'll be you that can order people to wake you with kisses and caresses to your nether regions."

My eye twitched, I remembered when it was my turn and promised myself I would kill him for it. Now I will have to break that promise because he is a farseer and that is what they bring people to.

"I would still like to hear it, my prince." I asked.

I do so because it'll be my duty to deal with the nonsense once I send his descendants away from this world and make sure him and whichever part of his retinue wishes to leave is granted the means by which to leave safely and reach wherever he's going to.

"That creature can empty this world of life in a day, and if I remain on this world he will happily do so. I am leaving before he can do so and if I try to tell you more I will die."

That told me little, beyond the fact that the fool has just lost his mind, for no 60 years old eldar could do so.

"I see, thank you my prince." I said and bowed lightly to my prince.

"If you truly saw what I saw you would be running, not thanking me." The madman said.

I somehow doubt that very much but I would prepare for it regardless.

He is a petty tyrant and a madman, but he kept his position for so long by seeing threats and dealing with them before they could deal with him and I would be a fool to ignore his advice, especially when it was freely given.


AN:
Lannea Dega =Lámh Dhearg-> Red Handle

Iraisa Aiunne=lasair uaine→ green flame