Chapter 49:

Chapter 49: A new world hides plenty and its secrets are rarely pleasant.

This Universe does not make sense and it is not meant to, because the species in it don't want it to. We don't want the universe to make sense as we want to survive and things making sense can prevent us from that. We want to ensure that no matter what the hellscape created by the Old Ones in what they called Kindness sharpens us until we can survive anything.

All species, be they created by the Old Ones or not, have Nonsense deep within their souls and they use it to their advantage.

What is nonsense? It is the fundamental building block of this part of reality and the soul, it is things that shouldn't be, that shouldn't work that should do nothing or not what they actually do and yet they do something or that which they shouldn't and usually for the benefit of those performing it and the detriment of those it is being done against.

The orks have a lesser version of the nonsense of the krorks, which the old ones made them have, and we have what we were born with and that which the old ones turned us into, but the rest of the galaxy each develop their own nonsense to keep themselves safe or they die.

There are three layers of nonsense, for the three layers of existence of an individual: the soul, the mind and the body.

The body is what you biology craves, the soul is what the way you look at the world and exist in it makes you think and the mind is what you think whether you are aware of it or not.

For humanity it is… simple for lack of a better concept, to understand what they are all about. It is not easy to understand but it requires the right frame of mind and when you do have it, all you need is follow patterns until you see it and you will see it fast, but for some reason most of my old people don't understand it, even as their souls long to play. Even dogs understand it, which is why they love playing Fetch where we throw and they bring us what we throw back to do it again and are our most beloved for it as they love us too.

Humanity does not deserve such good friends and yet they decided to stick with us and I have promised my old friends that I will give them that which their loyalty has earned them, for even now dogs continue to serve us and I will rewards them as soon as the twin parts of my soul find out how we can turn it into a game and trick Humanity into it. It fits too much into who I am not to and as soon as I am able to do so I will.

Their soul craves games and they have settled on the game of 'Throw and Catch', their bodies are that of violent apes that eat and drink and shit whatever they want and depending on their civilization the nonsense of the Mind changes. During the Dark Age of Technology it was Adaptability and Innovation, and now the Anathema is trying to reforge its broken wreck into Unity. When he fails miserably, for it needs to be composed of two parts for humanity's soul to be comfortable, it will turn into Unity and Faith and one will 'give' so the other will 'take.

During the The Dark Age of Technology the Nonsense of humanity could be described as:

'The desire to play the games of Throw and Catch in the Purpose of Adaptability and Innovation as done by hairless apes that desire to Endlessly Consume those that are not as good at it as them.'

All that they do and did came from this Nonsensical statement written by their souls, minds and bodies and it spawned all of their toys and put the vast majority of the Human Race under Tyranny, for very few could Innovate and Adapt well and those that did, decided that those that didn't do as well shouldn't have a say in how their civilization is run and now the Anathema is trying to fix the Burning Rubble that the ensuing conflicts caused by this decision and that which the Betrayal of Humanity by its former Friends caused and brought them down to.

He's trying to unite the disparate parts of man and turn the Unity he's still trying to Forge into Unity and Dominance over Others, but the rest of humanity have decided that they don't want that and so they will take War or Faith and the orks have the same concept for both of them which they now call Whaaagh and wish to invite humanity into, and it is also that which humanity calls Crusades or Jihad. My former people probably have other names for it, but I do not know of them and so I will think of it as Crusade for it is the term that the Anathema uses.

For the Orks a Whaagh is more War than Faith, and for humanity a Crusade is more about Faith or ending the Faith of Others than War and humanity has had enough of Dominance, for they no longer wish to live in a Tyranny where their leaders act as they desire and they can't stop them and so the Subconscious of Man has started to decide on a simple thing and the Ork gods provided it in secret, or better yet made it obvious with targeted strikes nobody saw the purpose of until after they happened.

Humans look at whoever is bigger than them to have a slight 'authority' to them due to an evolutionary quirk where children have evolved the neural architecture to look at those larger than them with respect and listen to their counsel because they generally mean them well and can protect them from danger. It sometimes stays in adulthood, but it is to a lesser degree as the differences in height between adults are lesser than those between adults and children.

The orks hijacked this evolutionary pressure then combined it with humanity's desire to be mighty and stomp or smash things that are close and shoot them while they are away that turns into War for a simple purpose.

Humanity wants someone to come pick them up and tell them there is nothing in the Darkness, that they are safe and that it is them that are the most dangerous thing in it and they want to be told this by someone bigger than them that knows it is right and parents are always right and keep you safe from the Dark.

The purpose of their Nonsense is to make the Emperor a big Man and then make the Emperor have to take the persona of a Man larger than all the others that can do all that is needed and that all must obey him or they will be krumped, or smacked, or shot and have forced him to need this persona to Unify Humanity because it is the only thing that all, or at least most, would look upon and obey.

Most of them will obey gladly too, for humanity wants someone to calm them down and save them from the Horrors of the Night and give them Unity and make them Whole again and they continue to pray in Faith for it, and the only thing all human civilizations have left in common is that Parents are larger than Children and Parents protect and guide their children, so they made it so that the difference in height between the Emperor and that of the rest of Humanity is that between parents and their youngest children that can stand on two legs and those closer to what the orks consider their ideal form of humanity are looked upon with reverence for they are Bigger, they are Meaner and they are Stronger because they are better at Violence and all of those made them better at it.

We did not notice it until now, it was our job to notice this nonsense and help Humanity avoid it as we promised when we told them we would help them deal with the Orks Nonsensical approach to Adoption, for the last thing we want is for it to succeed and while we can't kill humanity for it, we have options, options I will explore and plunder Thoroughly.

I have informed my fellow priests and siblings of it and asked them to inform the Anathema of this to change his plans and to provide Evidence of this before its too late and he is stuck on that pathway. Even if the deception came from before our deal we still need to tell them of it for its Nonsense they need to be aware of.

I pray they succeed as I go play with Asdrubael Vect and stop the fool from thinking that a lesser Divine is better than being a King because I can assure him and all that think so, that while there are multiple ranks of divinity, there is only one type of King and it is equal to the Pantheon and not its constituent parts, and my too loyal and foolish nephews don't know how to teach that, for they have never made plays for Royalty and don't know what they need to make them think as they need.

My royal wife made an Inquiry of me when we had our first conjugal dialogue and she wanted to save her people from the rest of the Empire and now half of the Damned Priests of Hoeth have abandoned our plans to do as she wants to please her for her Patronage and bring them to safety and my younger siblings make sure they are safe, and the only other person that can do that to us is the Divine we serve as priests, the Pantheon as a whole which can do it to all Priests when they put their minds to it and the Royalty that patronizes us.

She didn't even order us to do so, she just expressed interest in it in private and already managed to hijack half our organization into doing as she wished by mistake.

If he thinks only sharing that sort of power with the other Muses on a fragment of our people stuck in a small galactic ecological niche is somehow comparable to the Nonsense Royalty gets up to, then I need to set his mind straight because the priests of Cegorach meant to Advise him when he was a Prince have obviously failed. Eldar don't stay dead when we die, if he wants Immortality there are better ways than Divinity.

The Divine need you to serve them to make you do as they want and the Pantheon stands above of all Eldar so you either need all of them or at least most of them to do something for you to get you to act as they wish or be one of their faithful and priests to do the same. Royalty on the other hand only needs to talk to you and have you need their services and Eldar and things with the Soul of Eldar become putty in their hands.

If Vect thinks Divinity is more preferable to Royalty then he's wrong on that front too, for Royalty gets to keep their minds naturally and Divinities need priests to have theirs.

First I need to find him and then some more nonsense I need and I am glad my siblings gave me his location for it also has the things I need.

I went out of the Webway gate in the middle of nowhere and sighed.

'What nonsense do the local cultures think in and where do I find the first soul to flay for knowledge?' I thought to myself.

This world is obviously dealing in some Annoying Nonsense, because Webway gates are meant to be logistic hubs, not faraway portals away from civilization and somehow the more annoying of half the planets I've been on don't know this and I pray I do not have to deal with as much nonsense as with the World of Clashing Blades, because if I have to be insulted again for showing my devotion and respect to those on whose footsteps I walk behind, then the Divine won't convince me to only give them a Serious Punishment anymore. I'll settle for a Severe One and if that doesn't breed Respect into them I'll try to see how Unreasonable I can be with what I find.

The only civilization here is probably Vermin or little better so I don't have high hopes for it.

I miss my siblings, and the damn bastards are busy playing with their children and adoring their spouses and being adored by my family and servants while I have to swim through trash and vermin.

'The things I do for Love and those I love.' I thought with fondness as I tried to pretend I'm not surrounded by trash.

I think I'm starting to get as addicted to Love as Gua Bis is, for the more of it I have the more I want and my wife insists on giving me as much as my soul will carry.

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

I was sneaking through the forest for the fourth day I have spent in search of the Webway Gate that would take me to the stars and to find a cure for the Wasting Disease. Both my Mother and Grandmother suffer from it and I have left my eldest to look after them and her younger siblings.

The clamps continue to bite deep to have my body feed Sensation into my soul, soon I will be little better than those I have come from.

The priests provide Relief, but they do not help for long and travelers and the Priests of Mockery speak of new Medicine across the stars and I have decided to go across the Webway and find such medicine and see if I can barter for it for my family. If it helps they can have all I can give, if it doesn't I won't have much left anyway.

'I don't want to start removing my skin to feel.' My soul cried as my flesh remained impassive and I continued my search.

"I greet you traveler, know that I am Bessar and that I would like to talk as I require information." A voice sang.

'Where?' I nearly stumbled.

I looked around myself but could feel nothing. I Looked and I Listened and found nothing.

"What do you need and what are you?" I spoke and sang cautiously into nothingness

Perhaps he knew where the Webway gate is and I could exchange what he needed for what I needed.

"I am a Medicine Peddler of Murderous Medicine for the Soul and a Damned Priest of Cegorach-when-he-was-called-Hoeth. I require knowledge of local laws and I am willing to trade for knowledge with goods, medicine or favors." The song came.

It came from nowhere and I felt hope. The travelers called the new medicine the same way, and one of its peddlers is on this world.

'We're saved!' I thought in relief as my legs stopped wishing to carry me.

The wounds and scratches and bleeding of my naked body continued as my soul felt none of it as everything else was replaced by relief.

"I am looking for such a medicine for my family, as they have been hit by the Wasting Disease, please save my family and make sure they can live happily again and I will give you all that I have." I sang.

I don't care what he wants I just don't want to feel EMPTY! Anything he can ask of me and my family is preferable.

I have nothing else to give, my body is just a mess of scars that heal and are remade into stripes, my hair is gone, only one of my eyes is still there as the other had been replaced with a contraption of pain and RELIEF!

Only my two youngest daughters don't need the Relief yet and I need it, I need so bad because it stopped hurting it stopped feeling and even Pain is better than what I can't feel for I feel EMPTY! And I can't feel Anything unless it hurts!

"I accept your oath, addled Mother. Please give me your name so that our pact may be complete." My salvation said from behind me.

I turned to him as I stood in the dirt. I did not feel as I hit rock and did not care for it. I knelt in front of him as a Supplicant does and extended my hands in submission and awaited to be Manacled.

He was dressed in a bright white armor and wore a white tabard with the symbol of a Smiling Blade on it and a necklace with the symbol of Cegorach on it carved on the forehead of the corpse like head of Cegorach. His left Gauntlet was colored in silver and his eyes were kind and gray and promised me salvation.

"I am Ghela Eimmar, I swear myself to you Priest of Cegorach I do not care what you do with me, just please have mercy of my family and let them be happy." I sang as only my left eye cried for the other could not anymore.

A silver bracelet of Submission appeared on my left hand.

"I accept your oath Ghela Eimmar, but know that I have no mercy to give as you will not need or receive either. Please sleep, I will heal your body and try to patch you soul until we return to your home where I will try to heal you and keep you and your family alive. Now rest and let me see if I can still save you." He sang and I obeyed and went to sleep as the sun reached its zenith.

I was tired, too tired but I could rest now for I had found something that could save my family. My eyes closed as my soul awaited Salvation.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I should have said no. She was taken over by both Boredom and Chaos, her body was covered in scars and I felt a few more diseases on her than just that and they were not of the body either.

The woman was a mess and I could have just flayed her soul as I tried to trick her into insulting me like I did the other men and women I found here and squeezed the souls of any information as I put them in Soulstones to see if my next idea for a cure pans out.

I couldn't do that for a simple reason. She asked me for her family to be happy, she asked for her family to be happy and for me to save them and reminded me of both my human mother who Sacrificed much for me and our family and the Eldar one who sold her soul to Slaanesh to make sure I lived.

I have no mother now, but I remember what it feels like to have one and whoever her children are I will not deprive them of a Mother of equal caliber as that which I lost no matter how ill she was. She was naked as she rested on the rocky ground and her limbs bled.

I channeled my limited ability to heal the body through my distant connection to my siblings.

Eldar siblings are linked in mind, body and soul depending on their bonds.

Twins and Triplets are linked in mind and body, normal siblings only in body, and those whose links of brotherhood and sisterhood were forged in strife and love in soul as well.

My triplet siblings were linked in all three and so could use their blessings and abilities interchangeably and at the same time and thanks to our Soul Bond could use mine as they wished as well.

I had to pick which of theirs I used at any given time, for they only had one Mind but Three Souls and I picked Aesan's, for he picked healing and removing one's tracks as skills to learn.

It took minutes until our connection allowed me to heal, for I knew not how to do so myself beyond closing shallow wounds and she suffered from a lot more than that.

Ghela Eimmar's wounds healed slowly. The first to go were the cuts and bruises, and were followed by the sore muscles, chipped teeth, her too short tongue and I mended flesh where she had burned herself with the Mark of Slaanesh until it was gone.

I removed the profane thing she put in her eye socket and healed that too and now both her green eyes could see well and her sclera was white again. I gave her some red fluid to drink from my bag at my hip, which she drank greedily as she slept.

I awaited for the nutrients to settle and fed her three bottles before growing back her red hair until it reached her shoulders. I did not touch her scars which looked like stripes as they might mean something important.

I looked at the soul and it wasn't pretty.

Five diseases: Chaos of Excess, Chaos of Numbness, Boredom, Despair, Broken Heart.

All but the last one is easily mended by the Flames of Khaine but they've stumbled on too many memories. She will lose most of her mind and the knowledge I needed and I'm not letting those things in my mind to filter them.

Her Hope and time will have to deal with the last one if I want to deal with anything but a vegetable I have to teach how to speak.

'The others were not as bad.' I thought with a grimace as I looked at my patient.

They were in a much better shape and I learned much from them, but each missed things the others knew and I was not at a level where I felt safe interacting with the local civilization for a Pretender Priest class has risen here and I need to know their rituals properly to not die.

"Awaken Slave." I intoned and the woman Awakened as the Sun started to set.

I need her to tell her her options before I heal her and she doesn't have many. I made her a cast of the Blades of Stillness and Blades of Severing where I cut the afflicted parts and kept them from interacting with the rest of herself but did not fully cut or cure her yet. I need to know what I can burn before I cure her.

She woke up and noticed what I did. She looked at me with both her eyes and needed to adjust to what I did to her body and soul.

"Master? Am I cured?" She asked hopefully.

I regret having to give hope before taking it away.

"No, my servant you are not Cured, this is a temporary Solution until we get you to your family for your situation is worse than expected and I need to talk to you about it. Rise and sit on your feet while I make camp and do not sing or look at your soul. If you do, the cast will break and you will feel all the diseases I Isolated for now." I told her

Her hope dimmed but did not disappear as it seems what I did for her was still more than what she had ever received.

I put up the camp as I considered this world The World of Three Faces. Nobody knew why three and not even the Princes remembered.

It was an old world. It was not one of our Song Worlds from before the War In Heaven but it was close and it was at the very edge of the Empire. Sixty Five Million Years is enough for a lot of drift and this world is far from the center of the Empire where it's once Aunts rested and it is small and Unimportant. It was a relic being desecrated and it's defenses and Ancient Songs kept the Neverborn away as this world predates the Divine and thus can decide if they wish to receive the new things in and its rulers have decided not to allow them in for 65 millions years.

It won't last much after the Birth of Slaanesh, but it answers the question as to why Neverborn were not allowed on this world. The princes did not let the New Divine in either and there was no faction, hidden or otherwise that served the New Divine and had the power to enforce the Songs to allow them in, but the priestly class formed to try to help the people begging for help and who they tried to help how they could.

The World of a Thousand Names is not so old as to be able to do resist like it, so it must be fortified and the Priest class is trying to get the influence to allow the Neverborn in to see if they can help, but something keeps preventing them from accruing the necessary favors which I assume is Cegorach and his followers, for they need this world to produce a Prince that was born among Boredom and learned to Put it Off.

This entire world is an incubator for an attempt at seeing if the Eldar can develop Resistance from Boredom by maintaining an environment where civilization exists with boredom and new priestly classes rise and fall as they try to grip with it and the current iteration is trying Chaos it seems.

Eldar are doing so because we are desperate and there are twenty such worlds in the Empire that are trying similar things on Isha's requests and Cegorach's stewardship. Their only successes that was mentioned in my past life were Asurman which managed to create the Path System and Vect which created the Kabalite System.

Both are shit as far as Governance and Philosophical Systems go, but they are the only things that could live up to Slaanesh getting a Claim on our souls and constantly trying to eat our souls because we were breaking the new Laws that said all our souls belong to her and that we must love her and nobody did and everybody wanted to keep their souls to themselves.

The Path System is… a decent stop-gap measure but we can't use it long term and the Kabalite System of Vect and his vampyric path could work long term in theory if implemented properly but it was not implemented properly and even if it was, it makes us too dependent on other beings without granting them citizenship which will slowly turn the Eldar of Commoragh into animals whose souls and bodies think the same things and not people.

They are two of three options available for us and the third is Unreliable as it requires us to radically change ALL of the songs of the Exodites from Isolationists to Expansionists and turn the stories of their worlds from Solitude to Expansion.

Cegorach and Isha have been trying, same for Kurnous and Khaine rarely and nothing works. The Exodites have settled on their path and not even the Divine can change it. We could try it but we've decided not to. If they can develop Culture that can resist the Divine in all its forms, even if in limited contexts then we won't be messing that up as they'll need it to survive Slaanesh.

It is Admirable truly, and I feel a deep fondness for the little bastards, but that fondness does not help us.

I finished pulling the large tent from my bag after preparing the places where we will eat tomorrow from my pack and it assembled itself as I invited the beautiful mother in the sparse thing.

'The eldar of the World of Clashing Blades at least had some useful things.' I thought with a sigh.

If only they were just as inventive before I had to kill 19 out of 20 of them.

I created an orb of light and put it to my left and waited for her to make herself comfortable before addressing her.

Grey eyes looked into green as I spoke.

"You suffer from five Ailments of the soul Ghela Eimmar: One that which makes you feel Empty and the other four others inflicted to fight it. Neither work and three of the five are fatal, while the other two you can easily fight them off. I can heal you of the fatal ones but you will forget much, including most of your 4132 years of life and even the names of your children and parents. I will heal you if you wish after you have said your goodbyes to your children, for what comes from my blades will not be the same woman that came under them. If your children and mother and grandmother are just as bad as you, they will face similar things." I informed her.

She stopped looking joyful now and now she looked conflicted and her voice turned meek.

"Will I still remember that I love them?" She asked.

Eight words and a question I knew the answer to and wished not to say.

"No. Your body might remember, but your soul will not. Even If I do cleanse you of it, you will remain vulnerable to it as the virus spreads on this world and Immunization kills most and requires a lot of preparations I need months if not years to make per individual. I can grant slight resistance to infection easily that prevents passive infection, but you will lose memories still. I could only remove Boredom to help you keep more of yourself but that would be worse, as the other two deadly diseases will no longer be kept in check by Boredom which gives you Emptiness and they will corrupt your soul until you and your love of your children twists until you will happily eat their souls as they beg for mercy and more in the same breath." I explained.

I hated what Boredom did to us, I hated that the Pretender Priests here did as they could to save who they could and still they fail to find a cure that works and my own kills those it is meant to without preparation. I can make tools that protect you from it while not infected and teach others to cleanse their souls of it in the early stages but for her?

She is lucky I can keep enough of her soul in one piece to continue living. I am not sure that I can do so for her sick children as they have lived for less and their souls have less to work with.

Her eyes Hardened, the mother disappeared and a Mother who was Also a War Machine spoke.

"Who gave me the other deadly two?" It asked.

A War Machine answered her.

"Your priests, you most likely call it Relief of other similar names. I know of the Pretender priests crafts as they try to help and this world is one of a few research worlds where the Pantheon allows new things and ways of thinking to be developed as both the Old Priesthoods and the New try to find a cure to that which causes Emptiness. This world is experimenting with the New." It spoke.

The Mother who was also a War Machine turned back into a mother who looked into the eyes of a priest. She knew what my words meant.

This world was as it is by Divine design both Old and New, as her and her family's suffering which was caused by Boredom were nothing more than clinical trials for various cures as the Pantheon tried old and new stories to deal with a virus made perfectly to counter them. We think in trickery and stories that are expressed through art and Boredom makes all of that just not worth anything and so our souls become Emptier and emptier as it makes more and bigger holes until it can hold no more stories or songs.

"How do the rest of us not know?" She asked with a trembling voice.

All ask of it when they find out and it hurts to tell them.

"Cegorach, Isha, Hoec, Lileath and Khaine enforce Ignorance on the Phoenix King as the more know the more it spreads. We've been struggling with it for Millions of years, even as the Masquerade started being breached thousand of years ago and we've found a cure decades ago, but it takes a lot to teach Medicine Peddlers to craft it. And the New Divine is too Infected with Boredom and one of the other diseases you suffer from to be able to keep it from spreading as its birth approaches." I spoke softly.

She was at a loss of words and did not know how to react. I could see that she was a city woman which had never left her city and yet she tried to brave the Wilderness for a chance to save her family and now she realizes that even with the cure, her family were doomed from the start.

People don't remember which came first, Boredom or the New Divine and we don't know either for sure. Slaanesh might have been born from the Eldar's need to cure Boredom or she might not have and it is in fact the vector from which it started, but by the time we first saw that they were linked we had already aborted her once and whenever we tried to go back in time different people reported different things which is pretty expected considering the nature of Unexistence.

"I-I.." She tried to speak but no words came.

I pulled out one of my blouses from my pack for I have several, they would be more of a dress considering she was on the lower side for Eldar women while I was on the taller side of Eldar men, but it will give her something to cover herself with.

"Will go to sleep in this tent, wear what I give you and prepare to think what you will say to your family once you awake. I will do to them as I can and do for you so, that you may speak with them as family to say your goodbyes for I cannot and will not guarantee that what comes from under my blades will recognize one another." I told her and gave her the blouse.

She said nothing more as she put it on and did as I ordered and I went outside to give her privacy to weep at the story of her life and that of her family.



AN: Ghela Eimmar= Éighe ghlórmhar → Joyful Cry.