Interlude Two

Interlude Two:

Twenty two individuals dream around a tree around the House with the Silver Door, for it is the house of Gua Bis the Mighty which is in fact the clan of Lestean Bairu the Crafty who tricks everyone that it isn't his clan, and they are looking at a tree and among them is a Princess that is tired of Nonsense and attempts to console my father who had built our Home near theirs.

"Ulthuan, man among men, your son is not in danger." The Princess sang to my father.

All seers in the clan of Gua Bis looked after my half brother, who was the Maton father tried to keep adopting but he refused. Father and Mother told us that he healed them of an injury both of them had but were not aware of and soon after they noticed it had kept them from having children and I was born shortly after.

"Then why is he a tree?" My father cried

All of us were uncomfortable with that question, for none of us could explain it as my half-brother just one day decided to rise up when neither mother or father or myself and my brother were near him for less than sixty heartbeats, and then he went outside and turned into a tree.

A new voice joined our chorus and it was Aisse Gearra, daughter of the First Master of Murderous Medicine for the Soul of Eldar as defined by its creator and beloved of the Second Master of the same craft.

"Your son is being adopted Man among Men, for you have earned more favors than you know in a day, then proceeded to earn more than you can comprehend shortly after." She said and twenty one out of twenty two seers present and dreaming looked at her as if she was crazy.

She looked dressed as she always was, in a white blouse and a loose pair of pants of the same color while the rest of us were little more than white whisps that dreamed.

"You know what is going on, how, why and who is adopting my son?" My father asked and he was close to sobbing.

I was dearly hoping all would be well.

"You are adopting the boy fully, this is the debt my father is repaying to you, for him and several of the Damned Priests of Cegorach owe you several debts and they have decided to start repaying them, and so they will turn your son into an Eldar to start with and will start working their way up until they feel that they have repaid you." She continued.

We could feel the truth of her words but they made no sense.

The princess felt more tired than before at that response and sang 'Bessaric Nonsense.' albeit it was barely whispered.

"Yes, I've come here to calm you down and inform you of the issue, your son should come out of it in a few heartbeats and the tree will wither after he comes out and you will be able to check that it is your boy, for his soul will be the same so I suggest all of you to wake up and come greet him as he will be a newborn. I will leave now, for I have done as the Priests of Cegorach-as-he-is asked." She continued and then turned around and left.

We all knew she would return to building her own home that danced across the stars, for to build her own home to keep her family in had become her Obsession for before her own father had adopted her she had been Forsaken and now he wanted her to build her own home to dance across the stars and keep her family safe in and this is what she was doing.

I woke up, I was no longer in the world of wraiths and shadow but in my own room, my own brother in his dark and blue clothes he and I preferred was close to me and father as we decided to dream near each other. The Lady with the crown of light and white hair was still there and only I could see it.

Father couldn't, but he could sometimes sense her when she talked and would try to catch her when she was not expecting him.

'I am quite real you know, you can talk to me.' The she thing that pretended to be Lileath said.

'I do not pretend to be her, I just look like her because I emulate her.' She said in Amusement.

She was still hiding her scar from when father nearly cut her hand off. Both father and the letter from Bessar Agail he left me and the other seers they gave their charms to freely so they could sleep knew of her, for she visited us all.

She is not the things beyond perception, for Cipanni Oiair's singing blades look upon them with glee as they strike, but anything that hides from Senior Seers and singing swords is not your friend, for if they were they would not talk with Children but with Adults, so we ignore her the best we can until father, the Princess and the rest of the Senior Seers can catch her and ask exactly why is she stalking children.

I ignore her and she will go away as she always does.

'Your brother will be safe, the Damned Priest of Apocalypse keep their word even as they run on different definitions.' She said kindly.

I looked at her. I shouldn't be doing so, but I need to know how I can help father. She was dressed in a cyan dress today.

'What do you know?' I asked.

My brother remained silent as he always is, for he hates speaking but I could feel his gun-blade sharpening. He knew who I was speaking to and was preparing to both cut her and call mother from the shadows as we might be able to catch her now. Father is looking after our now flesh and blood half-brother.

He will join us once he tucked him in his bed.

~~~~~

I looked upon the boy whose father nearly cut my hand off and whose family has been trying to cut my head off. I hate dealing with children, especially those taught by the Damned of Hoeth and their friends.

The planet of Sil Orgaus, one of the worlds ruled by the few Wild Eyes of my Goddess was being more and more fortified from Warp Nonsense. Nothing short of Divinity will breach it and it continues to be fortified more by the day.

It is also less civilized by the day as trickery makes room for additional fortifications.

The Damned are rested again and worlds already are shedding civilization and treat it as if it's a thin coat of paint for this is what Hoeth and his faithful do to Eldar worlds. They keep them safe by stripping Eldar of person-hood until they stop feeling unsafe then it's the work of Millennia to turn them back into people if things go too far.

They don't like dealing with Eldar for a reason, everything they peddle their crafts against is a foreign threat, and they have been far too active against Eldar for my Lady's liking and Hoeth's schemes continued from behind the Grave. Nobody dares oppose him, even from beyond death, for they know the price of him failing, or worse finding you've been plotting against our safety from outside threats. Even the Followers of Hoeth don't dare actually change the mission parameters, they merely keep things below a certain threshold to make sure contingencies don't activate.

'The damned Of Hoeth, who is who Cegorach once was, are used to dealing with Alien threats, they are used to using different definitions of kindness, trust, wisdom and so on, but they will keep to their words. Your father is treated as softly as they can think to handle him, but they will start repaying debts in ways that will not seems as kind. What I want of you is to let him know of this and make his demands clear, preferably in writing before giving them to Bessar Agail's daughter.' I told him simply.

There is some trickery in there, just enough to not arouse suspicion, but little that will actually do more than what I asked.

'Why writing? And why are you haunting children?' He asked.

His mother was watching and searching for me.

'Bessar Agail thinks better when he deals with something written and it will send the message we want to him, and I am not haunting. My goddess wants to check the evolution of Bessar Agail's schemes on this world, for what she sees worries her.' I answered.

It was close enough to truth that it would convey the needed information.

Bessar Agail's plan has gained prominence in the Madmen of Hoeth when it comes to dealing with the issues with Humanity, thanks to his perspective and his perspective on actually dealing with the Eldar mentality on dealing with outside threats was that Hoeth had the right ideas in his natural form. They simply required refinement in something softer on the surface and the Damned are testing his perspective, for they like the sound of it and his ideas have fixed issues before.

His old people call it an 'iron fist in a velvet glove' and the strategy they have for our people is to keep the heavy militarization and preparation for War, but maintain a soft layer of trickery and civilization that allows it to exist and can be shed when needed to deal with immediate problems.

For the Followers of Hoeth this is revolutionary, for their job has always been outside the Empire, but for the rest of the faithful of the Pantheon it is something that has been tried before, for it is an intermediary step to being properly Civilized and it is an incredibly unstable one and it doesn't work for long.

Hoeth has always been one War away from turning the gods back into what they actually are, which is animals that want to kill all that is not themselves to feel safe, for this is what the Old Ones made of us.

The solution of the old Priesthoods of Hoeth was to always keep him in an Observation Mode and it works and everyone that still has texts on Hoeth, do not wish for him to return as anything but what he was.

The Followers of Hoeth want Partial Militarization, for they have started seeing Eldar as increasingly foreign and their plans with the Sirens are not helping, especially now that their long term plans on engineering more pliable civilizations on the borders have borne fruit.

'What do you want to know?' He asked.

The Man among Men and the other seers of the clan of Lestean Bairu were already throwing their nets to catch me and they were trying new tricks because they've been thinking about how to deal with a threat to their children and I was quickly running out of ways to continue my mission.

'How much does Partial Militarization strip culture from an Eldar planet and how fast and I do not like what I'm seeing. Please do as I asked, it does not hurt you to do so or at the very least ask your father to do so, and it will save all involved a lot of grief to state terms clearly as the Followers of Hoeth are running out of patience with Nonsense and Misunderstandings.' I said as my soul danced across nets, gun-swords, spirit swords and increasingly distressing contraptions and plans.

This world is one step removed from Barbarity, but it does not seem to be getting worse as the Followers of Hoeth are micromanaging to make sure civilization remains standing, but its a far too thin Margin between it and us becoming as The Old Ones wished us to be. We and our lady do not wish to go back to cleansing the galaxy of intelligent life regularly.

I escaped their nets and swore I would not return. I interacted with children for they're the least likely to pretend that things aren't changing and what I'm seeing is the same as the others are seeing. Children start training with guns-swords from young, for they are unlikely to harm the user and each and every single home is getting fortified as Novice Medicine Peddlers appear and the more of them appear the more souls that are born made to use their tools. It seems the Gods are preparing for a War but none of their Faithful know against who or why.

The Gun-swords are not the mightiest weapon or even the easiest to make in our Arsenal, but they have just become the preferred weapon of the Damned and their plots and few can use more than two at a time yet, and they are favored, for whatever specks of their soul Bessar Agail's Murderous Medicine Makers put into them makes the swords loyal and capable mimicking intelligence and now that Slaanesh can no longer intervene in their plans, they are getting quite obvious in their fortifications of the Periphery and Sirens are being moved from whatever worlds they inhabit, so that they may join their new Queen, for the Followers of Hoeth have found people that cheer as they are sent to War and remain civilized and for some reason they are gathering all of them to one place and prepare to move them.

The Empire of Ten Million Suns in its current iteration won't survive the Birth of Slaanesh and we can't fight against the Krork even if it does, The necrons need special preparations the Followers of Hoeth are not making yet, and our plans with humanity will treat them as Allies, so who are we fighting and why are the Craftworlds acting strangely? They are not meant to be trying to coordinate this early.

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

A follower of Hoec is in my room and does not care that my father already has a knife at his throat before he can speak. I was telling him of my day learning from my cousin when the shadows lengthened.

I look at the Madman that throws the Damned into Obscurity with disdain, for I have more important things to do than pretend ritual matters.

"Why are the followers of the Gods maligning my house and my clan?" My father asked as I remained silent.

We all knew of the Follower of Lileath that has been looking over children and trying to see if they continue to remain civilized and now it seems those of Hoec have started going after Medicine Peddlers.

The followers of Hoeth are stripping their favored worlds of all but the basest layers of Civilization in preparation of their plans and they have my full support, which is why I had been doing my best to learn how to craft the Wards of Darkness.

"I greet you former blade in the Dark, your daughter is not in danger, I have come here to make a request of her, another of my brothers is making a request of her Master as well, they have not erred." The thing which is one third Shadow, one third Wraithbone and one Third Eldar said and none of those thirds remained static as they shifted from one state of existence to another.

My father sang to mother and she was here in heartbeats as she knelt near me to my left in her armor and across the Shadow of Obscurity. I hugged her to feel safe for I knew what they wanted.

Mother hugged me back but remained looking impassive at the Uninvited Guest.

Master has wished to test on me if I am capable of holding the Immunization early so that the screams don't start as they did to him and discussed with mother to help me and told her why, for he can do so as Master of his craft and if it means it helps me more than it hurts.

I learned to make Wards of Darkness days after the Blades of Valor and now the Followers of Hoec wish to be immunized and my mother refuses to let me make more of the soul poison until I am an adult, for she sees what it does to the soul. The Damned don't notice it, but it makes it harder to hold 'Civilization' the more you accept in your soul compared to how many years you've lived and my soul has been reforged anew by Vaul so while I still remember my past deeds and how to reach there, my soul is far too malleable to play with that nonsense early.

I remembered the Damned's words and poison fits about right, only it does not kill the soul, merely the mind's ability to care for much beyond killing, and while adults are safe from it I am not, for my soul is freshly reforged and acts as if new.

"No, I have seen what nonsense my clan brother's craft does to the soul, and while most soul pieces gun-swords require are easily replaced and repaired by time and familial love, Immunization is not among them. It requires too much from young souls so if you wish Immunization you will go to Adult Masters." Mother said.

The Followers of Hoec bowed and disappeared and my father left his knife down.

"What are they planning daughter?" My mother asked sweetly.

I hesitated but she kissed my soul with the love a mother fills for a daughter and I relaxed and I could feel the effects of the ten drops of the Dark Soul Pits receding from my mind and I hugged her soul back and all was good and happy again.

"I have an idea but they did not tell me." I said and hesitated.

I did not know how many strikes I had left and I was not told by the Madmen, so to reveal it would earn me another and I know I have not been the most filial of daughters.

"You have one strike daughter, for it is the only one you've done out of anything but love for your family, and this will earn you nothing but our peace of mind." My father said as he knelt to my right in his loose black pants and shirt.

He too hugged me and I hesitated again. They loved me, I did not wish to mess up this chance at love.

"The New Divine is sick, it has always been sick with a virus called Boredom. The Followers of Hoeth and the Troupes of Cegorach have been the ones responsible for limiting the damage it causes to us and keeping the rest of the Pantheon from being infected. Bessar Agail managed to find a cure for the Virus with his Wards of Darkness and now they're most likely trying to see if extirpating Boredom from Slaanesh won't kill it, and the Followers of the Divine are preparing for the backlash as those of the Damned are enforcing Partial Militarization on important worlds for their plans." I said as I shared the secrets I was not meant to know.

Few knew of the Illness and it was kept secret for a good reason, for the more people were aware of it the faster it spread, but now with a cure and not merely Khaine's flames as treatment such things were no longer a priority.

It was the only thing that made sense, for Slaanesh is the result of Foreign actions which is the only reason the Madmen of Hoeth care. The Empire would have collapsed and risen without them noticing otherwise and this was their standard mode of operation.

A neverborn does not realize it's dead until it is in pieces.

There's been more of them each year, we are not far from the Birth, a few centuries left maybe. My parents continued to hug me as their souls became one and I prayed the Damned succeeded in their gambit and killed the thing before it was born or shortly after, for I did not wish to leave my home but I had to, for I had orders and I cannot stay and I dearly wished to stay in the house filled with people that loved me and would overlook my mistakes, for it was safe and lovely for my parents and family lived there.

AN: End of the second act.