Chapter 46:

Chapter 46: Ritual grants Continuity and Coherency.


'My love please do not break the ritual or all of us will be dead, please my love I beg of you, I will live, I am fine, for it takes more than a stopped heart to kill me, to kill any of us. If the rituals breaks, everyone but you will die for I can sense the followers of Hoec gathering.' I sang to her as our were one.

We can't afford to break ritual, not now that we have finally gotten the breakthrough we needed to the rest of our people and we can finally sleep in safety.

My Discontinuity allowed me to have access to multiple cures for the ailments of the soul and there are three of utmost importance to the Followers of Hoeth: The Dream Murder Charm, the Null Blade and the Wards of Darkness.

The Dream Murder Charm cures or protects us from Insomnia when combined with a dream catcher, which is the primary killer of the Followers of Hoeth be it directly or indirectly. My siblings desperately need it which is why the triplets have been giving each of them with their slight of hand various charms and knowledge crystals about how to make and use them while they pretended to feed them and keep from harming themselves as they slept for the ritual then piled a second layer of misdirection on my wife to pretend that they were only keeping them from dying when they were doing that and passing them notes so that our host and patron does not see them.

The Null Blades allow for Immunization from Boredom as it introduces one heartbeat of the Dark Soul Pits or the Grey Wastes into the soul of another and if they can survive the Dark Soul Pits then they are immunized and will need immunization every few generations until we can be certain Boredom is gone for good or the cure starts breeding true.

The Wards of Darkness are the bare minimum of a breeding colony for the cure, ten heartbeats of either of the cures that gives slight resistance or immunity and whoever can accept them into their souls can create more of them. They can also act as a shield or an infection on a colony of boredom to spread from, but if I allow them to fully deploy then they will turn into a declaration of war against Slaanesh.

She was crying, I need an excuse for it and I need it now, or I am dead for good this time!

"My love you need not cry for me, for I know my life was more difficult than that of most, so please do not cry for me, for the next parts are much better and happier." I said and sang to her as we stopped being one.

She realized her mistake and played along quickly.

"I am sorry my love, but your story brought me to tears and I will let you finish it." She said as she kissed me one more time on the lips and I had to make sure my blue glasses did not fall from my face.

It would not do to scare her more and make her realize I've cannibalized my eyes to make my marrow produce blood again. She will only cry more if she finds that out and I do not have a holo-field on me to hide my wounds like the rest of my siblings. I am thankful for my vassals for giving me these glasses to hide it from her for so long.

A few moments of Tardiness was worth not worrying her for a few minutes.

I doubt my other siblings are in any better shape than I am and my younger siblings are stabilizing them, for most of them have been each going without proper rest since they have become adults.

Myself and my younger siblings have been able to sleep since Ulthuan, the Man among Men, allowed us to create a place to sleep in even if we pretended not to be able to. The Dream Murder Charm alone keeps us from getting nightmares, it does not prevent us from being looked upon by Slaanesh and found and eliminated while we sleep, so we need both a Dream Murder charm and Dream Catcher amalgamation to sleep soundly and be safe in and it is thanks to Ulthuan which managed to combine the two to let us be safe as we sleep.

She left and returned slowly to her throne and let us to recover a bit more as she was not looking at us and thus we had a bit more freedom to move and maneuver.

Lack of sleep makes us sloppy and if we are sloppy we stop seeing the things we should see or start seeing the things we shouldn't, or worse break ritual and then Gea notices we've broken ritual and the followers of Hoec come and throw us into the Darkness where Mandrakes and failed artists and art pieces hide, Obscurity.

The Empire is burning, it is on fire and it is eating itself as it burns and trillions engage in constant endless wars of faith, glory or ambition and none notice it, for the Phoenix King does not notice it, for civil war is when traditions and rituals break and we need them to hold for as long as possible to give us a chance to kill Slaanesh properly and sterilize the area as we prepare to rebuild and immunize the survivors in case we miss a spot or it is reintroduced.

Gea is the Goddess of ritual and dance, for through those she creates Coherency and Continuity and allows us to pretend that things are as they should be, because if they weren't there Slaanesh would have eaten our souls already as she needs to follow proper ritual to be born, and if there's no coherency there's no ritual to follow, but if there is coherency then there is a ritual she has to follow to be born and if we can make her break enough rituals we can kill her with them.

Hoec and Hoeth in the tongue of the Old Ones share the same three letters of their name because they share concepts in their creation by their Ends. 'Hoe' unlike in past life does not mean hooker or a specific type of farming implement, but Removal and thus Hoec means the Removal of Sight, and Hoeth the Removal of Ignorance.

Hoec is meant to provide the Fog of War against our enemies while Hoeth breaks through theirs and once the Empire had started destabilizing, it is Gea and her followers that tried to determine what it means to be coherent and to follow proper ritual and teach others what that means and Hoec is that which enforces it by removing inconsistencies and also removes from the mind of our people the harsh truth that we are in a civil was and have been for thousands of years as cabals, armies, princes and every single organization in the Empire beyond the planetary level is at each other's throats, as we too deal with our own Age of Strife like humanity, but ours had been going on for longer than humanity has had spaceflight as Gea and Hoec enforce ritual at sword point and hid those that broke it in the realm of Darkness known as Obscurity to maintain the illusion the Empire of Ten Million Stars is still an Empire and not an Endless Apocalypse we've created and keep maintaining to allow for enough nonsense to kill Boredom and Slaanesh.

They've been starting to fail too and slowly, ever so slowly the truth is revealed and when it is revealed fully or at the very least enough, then Slaanesh will stop pretending that she can't kill us all already.

All of the damned that break ritual and fail or fall to our enemy are killed and have their souls sent to Obscurity to suffer and die and it is why my former elder sister ran before she became an adult, for the children have protection in an Orphanage from the gods it is dedicated to, but that protection expires when they become adults and leave it, and then each mistake is a straight trip to obscurity where becoming a mandrake is the kindest fate that awaits you, for if we create Inconsistency there's nobody to protect us as the Coherency of the Empire is more important than the Damned that failed.

The damned are not that lucky to be turned into a Mandrake either.

I managed to cheat this rule by turning to adulthood and not leaving the orphanage to maintain safety as I created my dream murder charm to keep the nightmares away while in the safety of the orphanage, and I had not slept properly once I left my birth world until Ulthuan and his apprentice created the combination of our tools and he did so without Divine Intervention, for if we could have gotten such a tool through such we would have.

We've killed trillions for less than a good and safe night's sleep and it's why we are so protective of Gua Bis and her family which felt the lack of sleep as we did and why we and the rest of the Followers of Hoeth made it quite clear to any would be nonsense that if something happens to Ulthuan we will no longer care for pacts and promises and contingencies.

We will straight up turn this galaxy into a singularity after we have had locusts cleanse it of life again and we'll see if we can't remake our species from ourselves only if the man dies by anything but old age. It is our final solution to boredom, a full reset, burn and extermination all in one as we decide we're done with everyone's nonsense and so we decide that enough is enough.

It is the kind of threat we can only make once and we've decided that the madman who cares and loves homeless children and gives them homes to sleep and be safe in deserves it and we will give him anything he desires for free and will make whatever killed him pay for it dearly as they and all they know scream.

He wishes his sons to grow mighty and strong? We'll make sure they rule this galaxy if that is what it takes and all we need of him is to tell us if this is what his words mean.

He wishes to adopt the Maton machine as his son? We already have three schemes going on to make sure the thing is turned into an Eldar without dying.

Whatever he wishes, he will get for giving us for the first time since the last Tower of Hoeth burned, a place to sleep in and do so safely and without things trying to kill us in our sleep or plundering our screams for all we know and doom our siblings and schemes for our sleepiness.

All priests worship and play their plays for the entire Pantheon unless we dedicate it to our patrons which is either our Patron Deity or a member of Royalty which are their peers and have decided they wish for a private show. The Followers of Hoeth have no Divine Patron anymore so all of our plays are for the entire Pantheon to see and admire if they so wish and Slaanesh who we are trying to kill is part of it and if she notices us she can counter us and we no longer have our barracks to rest in once we become adults, for the Mortal Phoenix King burned them, and those he didn't we dismantled to make Cegorach's Black Library for the Harlequins. We did so because all Homes of the Divine need their patron to walk through them in order to be sanctified and Cegorach was born after the edict preventing such, and so we had to improvise by making his home from the corpses of our own and turned ourselves homeless to give our nephews a single place to sleep safely in, for as their father is made from the corpse of our father so is their home made from the corpses of ours.

There's a reason my siblings and I love plotting in our beds, as it's the place we think the most clearly in, for it is the most comfortable place to find yourself one mistake away from Death and Obscurity and that makes one particularly alert, and after Ulthuan granted us his gift it is our own gloating at death that keeps us plotting on beds we do not sleep on.

The troupes of Cegorach can use it more than we can, for they have a Patron that will protect and guide them while we do not and so it is better to give them a barracks to make sure they can sleep properly once they finish their training.

I drank some more water and ate a bit more fruit for my body to get some nutrients and building blocks to regenerate as I prepared to continue my tale.

Marsa came and poured me some water and by her coming here she gave me the message we've pre-established when I am to be take a break to be healed.

If Guraith poured me water, then everything is alright, If Marsa came to do so, then we have some in critical condition but no likely deaths if they receive treatment and if Aesan rose up from near me and poured me some water then we have corpses to deal with and prevent my wife from seeing.

"Thank you sister, I am a bit parched but I'm otherwise fine, please make sure that the rest of the guests do not have to bother with empty plates and empty stomachs." I said kindly.

Both her and Aesan rose up slowly, for I told them I am stable now and to go look out for the others in critical condition and make sure nobody is dying, for we've finally gathered together and can once again make sure we do not die from sleep thanks to Ulthuan the Unlucky.

"Where was I my love, yes it was the first act wasn't it? Let me see if I can give it the proper start for it started in stark contrast to my prologue." I said as I prepared to continue my tale to my audience.

My audience was made of half corpses, three nurses and a Queen and it is her following proper ritual that allows the nurses to make sure the half corpses don't turn into full corpses for they are too tired to do so themselves.

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

My husband continues the ritual I realized it is necessary for him and his fellow priests in order to survive, and I was again forced to smother my fear and horror as I realized that the priests of the Divine I hold most dear are nearly dead.

My husband tried to hide the fact he does not have eyes anymore and he managed to do so the first time I kissed him. I accepted no such nonsense the second time.

Missing eyes, half a lung left, part of the muscles he does show to have are fake and made with song, he most certainly broke a lot more than one bone when he jumped into my arms and his heart nearly broke because the fool did not regenerate it fast enough to handle the blood flow. I realized that he is also halfway responsible for his own healing too.

His siblings act as nurses even as they pretend to look over family to make sure the rude but tired guests don't actually die as they sleep and their past wounds catch up with them as they move around the table and try to triage the wounds they keep hidden from me.

I am very scared now and I sincerely wish I could do more for them than stand and listed but this is a priestly ritual and it is the duty of priests to create it and of the Royalty and Divine to watch them depending on who it is meant for.

"The first Arc of my story started sweetly for I was met by the sweetest warrior I believe still exists and she was called Gua Bis the Mighty. She found me and my siblings as we bled in body, mind and soul and she offered us what we craved, what all Damned craved, parents that love us.

I was already damned for I had become an adult with none to take me in but the Damned, and no matter what I did, any break in ritual would see me killed by the Followers of Hoec to keep up the charade that the Empire of Ten Million Suns is not burning and in a civil war.

Gua Bis found broken tools and Orphans and together with her Husband Scarn Laddon offered us a home if only we could take it and in there I gave my siblings a choice, for I knew they loved me and I loved them too and they knew of it and as we took in her first proposal for adoption I made it clear to my siblings that I am willing to let them have a family, that I absolve them of the debt of their adoption and education and that no matter what I will ensure Gua Bis will have three new children to adore at the very least and a fourth man to join her clan that is their family. If my siblings would have said yes or continued to show that they are interested in that which she offers us, we would have slept at the Home with the Silver Door and Gua Bis by ritual and tradition would have had three new children the next day and a man to marry any of her daughters or nieces to.

My siblings repaid my kindness and loyalty as they always do and chose to spend their last day of childhood among the Damned, and thus Damned themselves as well.

We granted to the child of Gua Bis the greatest Dream Murder Charm which I have created to allow others to sleep and I made two of them, for the boy who is called Lestean Bairu suffered as all seers and the Damned, but not the accursed farseers, from the gloating of Slaanesh and she gloated to all that could see her future about their impending demise.

We were then granted a house by the Princess of the World of a Thousand Names to call our own and to rest in and we immediately started to fortify it to see if we could rest in it properly.

We couldn't, for while we could sleep, my medicine for the Soul to cure fear that I call my Swords of Valor could only keep one of us safe as three others had to protect a fourth so that they could sleep, for there were things haunting that world and all others with the unpious on them in the Empire that we could not see or feel or hear but that hunted the Damned and attacked and killed us as we slept and if we slept too often we would die for it, for to sleep in front of your enemies is to die for it. One day of sleep a month for one of us was all we could expect if we wished for others to not find our soulless corpses the next day, for no matter how many Swords of Valor I made, the more things beyond perception gathered to kill them and us and my swords grew furious at all that they could not see and paranoid and they lied to me about their ability to think in their paranoia and the reason why they did so I would only learn at the very end of the second arc.

The next day my first Apprentice was delivered to me by his family, for I promised to Gua Bis to teach her nephew Cipanni Oiair how to make the Dream Murder Charm to repair that which I made for her and her family and the Severing Blade to make sure others but him could use it.

His family, his world, all that knew him and even the boy himself called Cippani Oiair a talentless laybout who can only work hard when pushed and all of them lied to me. The boy could not swing a sword that was true, but he could make medicine for the soul and could do it so well he caused a crisis of faith in myself and my siblings as he made us ask ourselves if we ourselves have wasted our lives, for the boy could do and learn more in a day than all four of combined in a week when he showed him our craft and dared call himself talentless when he learned what took a combined 152 years of work to learn and to create and surpassed it in a year and a few months, for all four of us worked tirelessly on the medicine for the soul for most of our childhood.

We realized that it is not because the boy was talentless, but because his teachers were incompetent and the boy too stubborn and determined to work hard to make his family proud and in doing so all but lost his pride.

He tired us endlessly and nearly died for it as we exhausted ourselves to keep up with the voracious appetite of his mind and soul that sought to devour all that we could give them of my craft.

We swore vengeance on the incompetents which harmed my and my siblings apprentice, so after he dared call himself lazy and untalented and insulted us so as we nearly died from trying to match the titanic strides he took in his learning, I gave him the lightest punishment my heart would let me for his insult, and the next day I revealed to his clan that they have been wronged.

Scarn Laddon came to us to ask for forgiveness for his nephew, for he thought our punishment was too harsh and that the boy lied about what he did, but he did not, for we were incensed beyond reason at the idea that our talented apprentice which is more talented and capable at that which I had created would dare call himself talentless, but he accepted my words and we started plotting vengeance on that which has wronged us and I proceeded to make preparations for my future schemes.

Gua Bis all but made herself queen by accident when she decided to give us a home and it took every single possible ounce of strength for us to refuse her, for the only home the Damned would feel safe in is that of the Divine which abandoned them or that of a queen or king that took them in to perform in and if she were to learn what we almost did, then I do not think she would forgive us. From her unwilling scheme I learned a terrifying truth that all blessed of Isha know but that we mortals who are not blessed by the Mother of our Species do not fully comprehend.

A larger and loving family is a frightening prospect, for the more Eldar act like one with love and care for each other the fewer things can stop them. Our people forgot this, those blessed by Isha cannot do so, no matter how much Cegorach tries to make them forget until the right time, for all blessed by Isha crave to make their families larger when they find others with traits they wish to incorporate into their family. Gua Bis was addicted to love and this is what she saw in us and why she was trying so desperately to get us to join her clan, for she saw we knew the power of love and instinctively wanted for the rest of her clan to remember it too, for they could not do so fully. She was the great villain of my first arc, for if she succeeded in her attempts her world would burn to make us feel safe again and invite our brothers and sisters into the first safe home we've had in Millennia.

We barely escaped her clutches without calling her mother, for if we did so we would have had to burn her world to cinders until the only thing that was left on it was that which bent the knee to her and she loved her world too much to see it brought this low and so I had to refuse what she offered me and she offered me pure unconditional maternal love, and I am incredibly weak to that which loves me.

Her princess knew that too, which is why she thanked me for the gift that I had given and all but swore allegiance to my plans to save her family, lest Gua Bis finally break through our defenses and makes us call her mother and we would plunge the world in fire and death to make it our home so that we feel safe in it as we did so.

I gave her a son to adopt that I taught to make tea that Khaine likes as an apology and gift for scaring her and nearly killing her multiple times as we enjoyed her hospitality and I truly did not wish to insult such a wise Princess.

There, in the home of Gua Bis I had also met a Man Among Men called Ulthuan who was named after an Ancient Kingdom of our people before we learned how to dance across time and space at the feet of the Ancients. He, alongside his apprentice Lestean Bairu were Gua Bis's greatest weapon against our defenses and against her plans, for they tricked both me and her in such a sublime way Divinity had to tell us they have done so and we now call the younger of the two clan leader.

The older man, who has earned the name of Ulthuan the Unlucky had managed to create for us a combination of the Dream Murder Charm and the Dream Catchers that would allow the Damned to sleep Soundly and Safely wherever we pleased provided more than one of us gathered in a single spot. He had earned in a day of work more favors than I think he can comprehend but it is fine for the Damned Sons and Daughter Of Hoeth are nothing if not Generous and we will repay each and every single one of them, for he is a blessed of Lileath and they keep earning more debts that we will repay when we are able and they stop running in fear, for our love is Divine just like our father's and our love is warm and it burns worlds to cinders and drowns them in the screams of those that had wronged those that wronged us and those we care for.

On that world I had met family, three disparate groups of them to be precise.

First I had met the children and grandchildren of an Older Brother which died to ensure my birth, for as I would be told he was one of many that had decided they would take Obscurity for a chance at a breakthrough and so he died after he turned himself into a woman and gave birth to children, only to abandon her son and his children and die ignominiously so that I would be led to the world on which I would realize the truth of who and what I am.

I offered recompense to her family for this act when I learned of it, as I gave them as much knowledge as I could of their mother without damning them and gave them a purpose in avenging her death at the hands of the New Divine. I also offered to take them to safety in case my plans for the World of a Thousand Names failed, but each were too loyal to their princess who was wise to take the hand of this sinner and run to safety.

The second group was not a group, albeit she was a part of one that is family, but was a single woman and she was the woman I would take as my daughter Aisse Gearra, whose soul was made out of the same material as the sword part of my soul, stardust, and whose beauty moved me to tears and I saw something that turned me apoplectic with rage, for I saw that the woman with the twin soul of my mother is not loved as she should be and that those that should have nurtured her have stopped her dreams of dancing between the stars for more than 200 years. Khaine had to calm me down lest I found a way to throw that world into its star for the insult of harming the soul of the girl I had taken as my daughter and which reminded me so much of myself, for the name she would have taken was the same as that of my mother and I denied both of them from my grandmother's touch. It took Khaine 7 hours to calm me down after he managed to find me acceptable targets to Murder and I murdered her former family which had Forsaken her.

My soul remembered where half of its material came from, and it came from a girl who in her past life was one of two twins and had noticed when the former twin of his own Mother screamed for love, for she was lonely and she had been Forsaken and the son of the woman her soul screamed for remembered it and it took Khaine 7 hours to calm him down and make him forget, lest his own grandmother notice his cries. The princess and all that witnessed were left scarred and scared of it, for they saw Khaine sing a lullaby to calm me down and ask me to not start killing before it is time as my Hatred, Love and Desire for murder made me walk-as-if-I-was-Divine and we did so, so that I would forget what I wished to do and why.

I adopted the fool and made sure she will find only love in the arms of my Apprentice and the boy knows better than to anger me with his indecisiveness now, for he has tasted the least of my punishments and I know to give plenty that are worse.

The third family group I met on the World of a Thousand Names were my Nephews and Sons of Cegorach which noticed we are where we are and kept trying to get us to come with them to sleep, for they noticed we were barely clinging to life and their Master told them we had discovered something important and that we needed help so we could share it with others. We needed a distraction and assistance with dealing with the Divine Tantrum or Murderous Strike we were trying to create by appearing weak and obvious. The fools thought we needed a home and tried desperately to get us to run and take us to their barracks where they hoped we would be able to sleep if we took the Black of the troops of Cegorach. We kept telling them to run and do their duty and the too loyal fools thought they were doing it when they tried to take us to safety and so we squabbled.

Gua Bis noticed our squabbling and thought we were at war, when in truth we tried desperately to save each other, and so she decided to take matters into her own hands and seek retribution and as we told her there is none to take, she wished for answers but we had none to give her, for to answer her fully would invite our deaths.

So she started hunting our nephews for answers and would not listen to our pleas to leave them alone as her entire branch of the clan started hunting our nephews and we barely managed to get her to stop trying to kill them for answers even as the hunts continued and our nephews cried about it as we told the fools to run, for Gua Bis is Mighty and she thought her family had been slighted and would not accept our deceptions and misdirection as answers.

The fools refused, for they were Eldar and Eldar are too prideful to abandon family that loves them even when we managed to get the Princess of the world, Sil Orgaus to order them to leave us be and run. The followers of Cegorach continue to make every single Follower of Hoeth, including their father Proud, for our fools love too much and fear too litle.

The arc approaches its end as I tricked the slave boy and gift from the Divine into wishing for his freedom and that of his followers and in doing so I made my gift to the princess and I gave her plenty.

I gave her a new son to adopt and love that made the tea and ritual that calms both me and Khaine down, I gave her 40 million faithful souls to help fortify her world, I made sure millions of the unpious would die and the schemes they and the survivors had prepared far from her Eye become obvious to her and most importantly I gave her world a fully trained Murderous Medicine Peddler for the Ailments of the Soul to help treat those loyal to her that suffered from Boredom and other ailments to help fortify her domain from that which we do not allow ourselves to perceive.

It was a poor apology for scaring us so, but she still loved it.

The Arc ends with a donation from the Divine for our trickery and play.

The home of Gua Bis was invaded by the Divine and as it's greatest protector was busy trying serve its world and keep it safe from my nonsense, and so its protector called in a debt to make me ascertain it was a Filial Daughter they smuggled in the crib reserved for her daughter and not Vermin to be exterminated in Flame and Ash and Screams.

The Divine sent to the House of Gua Bis a fallen hero, who is now called Rionala Arana and she convinced me that she was a filial daughter, but she had turned against the Divine in her past life. She had hunted the Damned to feel the Thrill and had partaken in profane sacrileges to escape Boredom and now she sought redemption and love. We granted her that and in exchange demanded submission, for she was an enemy that had killed the Damned before and we gave her explicit orders to follow in the service of our other schemes.

We ran afterwards and left The New Divine waste a tantrum after one of our nephews uttered the name of Hoeth and Slaanesh noticed the weakest damned sons of her most hated foe she had ever seen and thought we were the last. She was wrong and we laughed at her and mocked our Divine Audience, for they all, even Cegorach, thought the Followers of Hoeth are dead, but we still Live and it is time for us to remind the Galaxy why the Eldar have chosen to live in Ignorance and are too Scared to Remove It.

Thus ends the first act of my Play which I have taken to call Forsaken and I have called this first Act 'The Silver Door' and it is by far the shortest of them.

My husband finished as he bowed to me, to the claps of his fellow priests and that of my own for he was right and this part was a much more pleasant than the Prologue.

"Let us take a break my love, for my mouth is still hungry for more kisses and I would wish to hear from my siblings as to what nonsense they have been through before I retread the ground that has lead me into your arms once again." My husband said as I ran towards him and kissed the fool.

Whatever he needs I will get him and I will do so gladly.