Chapter 50:

Chapter 50: Tending to Family is crucial to its health


Boredom is the one thing both the New Divine and the Old, and regardless of civilization level or whether they are alive or dead, wish that it stopped being an Issue.

We don't want to deal with it, we don't want to think of it, we want it gone and make sure it is completely handled and that it stays handled.

Cegorach acts as diplomat between A House Divided that is burning and trying to kill the other side and not a single one of us will mess with whatever goes here on this world without the other's consent.

I am not here to deal with Slaanesh, I am not here to cause anyone grief or make sure that anyone pays for it, I am here to help Cegorach and see if I can't fix Asdrubael Vect, for Cegorach has created the conditions for us to barely get a new Royalty after the Birth of Slaanesh and Slaanesh knows this is important and is trying to help.

Slaanesh and its birth is a civil war, but until Chaos takes her mind and turns her not Eldar she will help us as our plans on this world benefit her as well, as a Royal will be able to not only be able to keep her mind from Chaos but even cure her of it under the right circumstances.

If done right, it might allow us to kill the Divine Slaanesh, cut and slice her Divinity into pieces and have the central identity marry into Royalty, thus creating a scenario where all sides get what they want with the Pantheon being Reborn, Slaanesh dying and us getting back in action, and Vect is the only success we've had that might get us to resolve this conflict in an amiable way.

Slaanesh and her True Priesthood have been informed of me being here, they will let me play with the pretenders to make sure Vect exists, because the foolish idiot is the only chance we got at everyone getting what we want from our War because this is what War is.

Multiple sides decide they want something and the only way they see that they could get it is through Violence and if you can find a way for both sides to get what they want, then both have Won. You only lose if you don't get what you want, not if you can't fight anymore.

Slaanesh wants to live, it wants to love and be loved and it wants a family that will give her that.

The Pantheon don't want to become one Divine, and Slaanesh by her own nature would cause just that, this is why we first aborted her and nobody wished to Devour her.

Vect or his royal children once he forges his crown can give us that, for Marriage can only happen between peers and as Royalty is both Mortal and peer to the Divine. The Divine and eldar can only be married to each other to make children and while they can get married, the divine has to become Mortal to do so. So if we can get Slaanesh to marry to a Royalty that does not Worship her and that is distinct from her but that which is still compatible with her, then we can turn Slaanesh's identity Mortal, Burn the Divine corpse it leaves behind and the Pantheon can return and Asdrubael Vect is the only Mortal we can see that has a chance at it, for his Crown was forged after Slaanesh and from her screams and despite her influence and forging crowns is not as easy as Sallara Sao made it seem.

The World of Clashing Blades was the result of several iterations of the Eldar species, thousands of priests carefully molding the entire situation to happen as was needed and agents among the Eldar and the Sirens slowly and gently prodding things up for hundreds of thousands of years of careful balancing acts to produce the exact result we needed which was the perfect conditions for a Queen.

The other priesthoods probably don't know what we've done either, except Cegorach's and some of Hoec's but both of them know better than to tattle on our prank. We indulge plenty, but not sabotage. Oh and those of Lileath know but we can't keep secrets from those fools.

We owe them too much to keep secrets and they try not to pry in our business so as to not inform Slaanesh of all our plans once Lileath dies.

We've tried to forge other crowns among the Sirens, and this was the only one that worked and after the Empire falls we won't be having a lot of our Divinely acquired boons to try again, nor will we be able to get any more besides from Cegorach who mediates between squabbling families, Khaine who will be in pieces and Isha which we originally needed to give to Nurgle to see if she can't trick it into making something that attacks Boredom and can infect it until it turns into something else that we can kill. Chaos infection always makes things worse for that which it infects, and if it stops Boredom from being perfectly crafted to target us, we'll have an easier time killing it for good and in a way that does not replicate my situation with my first apprentice for each individual we want to cure and be made able to cure others as well.

Cegorach has managed to forge a chance for a second crown for us to use if my wife Dies and we will not subject our children to whatever the Dark Eldar subject their people to so that it makes the Dark Eldar seem like they are courting Slaanesh in marriage and that which Vect loves getting up to.

If Cegorach's plan succeeds, then the story of Vect and his murderous den of shit stains, deranged chefs and pirates becomes the story of a Crown from the Gutter, where a former slave saves his people, teaches them how to survive Divine Wrath for their folly and eventually tames the Divine like the first Mortal Phoenix King and makes us safe again as the Tale of the Eldar is Rewritten in his image and ego and when the Divine Return we will get the new Priestly Classes to slowly grant us coherency and unity as a new Founding Myth emerges and that of the Mortal Phoenix King will either merge with him or is relegated to Ancient History as a new Dynasty is forged and rises Ascendant over the story of the Eldar people.

Slaanesh gets her love, we get to continue as we are and rebuild from our family spat as she abandons all that she is for the love of her peers and to make herself a family that loves her.

We'd rather kill her, but we will keep this option open just in case it is necessary and in case our other plans fail, but we need to make certain it works now that we have a cure for Boredom and the Followers of Hoeth are preparing the Curing of Slaanesh.

Our worlds that the Pantheon controls and the Damned once again operate freely on are being turned into a giant blade filled with the Wards of Darkness and Null Swords, and if we manage to delay the Birth enough then we can build enough of it and combine them with Khaine's Flame to cleanse Boredom and once that happens Slaanesh will just be our Main Goddess and Chaos God and if we can separate Chaos from Eldar Divinity and Eldar from Divine, then things will get back on track and we can teach our treacherous vassals why they agreed to our deals and why they were so generous.

Slaanesh can get her fairy tale ending if she manages to find a way to cleanse Chaos from her soul as that nonsense is on her to figure out how to counter, as we won't help her. She wanted to play with Chaos, she gets to clean up after herself as she'll be an adult and need to look after herself. We're already trying to get her a Husband, as Vect's the only Bachelor eligible for her and if she wants to be worthy of him then she should at the very learn to clean the trash off herself.

But first, get it into Vect's head that no individual Divinity stands above Mortals, because I do not know where that Towering Pillar of Arrogance that makes the Gods seem Humble got it into his head that the Divine stand above him. This contingency will get in place if we need it even if it is unlikely as we have other things we want to try before we end this amiably.

"Master we approach my home. My daughters continue to try and Sing to me but I do not answer and they are scared of you. They might attack." My new slave woman said as we walked through the city.

And I have to deal with that issue. At least the ill are giving me a wide berth as we walk, as priests of Cegorach are still feared wherever they go, for all know of them even if they don't know they are priests.

Also everyone is scared of the Damned but that's just common sense.

"I will wait outside your home, and your family may invite me in once you have explained. Also please do not let them convince you to run or move too fast away from me, I need to be near you to maintain the Soul Cast." I told her and she nodded.

I put the charms I need her to wear in a necklace and it has enough bullets for two hours of operations as they are larger than normal and she looks as if she carries three phones from my past life around her neck.

If she runs, her diseases will seem like they are gone for a bit more then they will slowly return and make everything worse as they will do so unevenly and she will beg for death and I have informed her of it and of the fact I personally keep them fed and that if she tries to do so herself the cast will fail and if others try it they will break the casts and will need to remake it as her soul screams in pain and decided whether or not it would rather just cease living.

I don't want to bother with it, but she needs to inform her family to not try to Murder me for enslaving their mother that nearly died running into the unknown to try and find a way to help them and did so to not become a third mouth to feed that does not produce anything.

You can't buy that sort of loyalty and Eldar know this, so it makes it all the harsher when you see those that love you so brought so low.

She entered the white door of her home and I waited to be received in as is proper. I had flayed several souls on my way to her home, and they gave me some more of their laws that tell me how to to behave according to my station and how others should behave around me.

Eldar Laws are not written down, except perhaps in some madmen's vault, they are experienced by priests and princes as the world moves through their songs and people learn what that means and learn to act accordingly and while they might change from time to time, once a world has princes and princesses and something that can pretend to be priests the Laws remain set.

The laws here are simple as far as I can see.

I can be killed for lying as always albeit there are allowances, I can only fight my fellow priests and can kill those who insult me too much or those that ask me, which when talking about Eldar they might as well be synonyms. Oh I also need to dress myself appropriately which I did before meeting the lovely mother, and must fulfill the requests for boons from those that ask me as long as they offer me something in return that I want or need.

The most sticking point is that I am not allowed to kill Princes and Princesses under any circumstances or order someone to do so for me, for as long as they remain as such. This means that if I want them gone I need to kill their people until they lose the title, have someone else kill them then pay for it, arrange a duel between two and decide who survives, or get their offspring, or parents, or spouses, or siblings, or pets to kill them. There's nothing stopping them from killing their princes except retribution from each other so I don't need to do too much.

Whoever thought us not being able to kill or order somebody else to kill a prince will keep them Alive from a True Priest of the Pantheon wishing them dead has obviously never met any. We don't need to kill you or order someone to do so for us, we can just have somebody else be very determined to kill you and not even know or care we also wanted it to happen.

You want us not to kill you, you better have a small booklet of rules and clauses and Nonsense that tells us you want us to keep you alive, because telling a priest what not do is to give them a challenge and asking them to do something a favor and either way we'll do and sing and speak what we feel would make for a better story once you decided to make some silly laws apply on us specifically.

No priests likes finding nonsense waiting specifically for them so really, it's the fault of whoever brings our attention to them that has to live with the consequences of us deciding if they would make for a good story or not.

These laws affecting Priests on this world, are either a hilariously bad attempt at nonsense from idiots or a nice little test to determine who has what it takes to be a priest and either way it is not something I'll bother with most likely. I'm here to see what went wrong with Vect and fix him, not bother with swamp nobles.

'What is taking them so long? It's been ten minutes, that should have been long enough to explain things.' I thought.

Oh well, I can wait. It's not like I'm in a rush and I'll find out if it's important. I can just think happy thoughts about someone's inevitable demise in the meantime until I am invited in their house, as it would be rude to enter the Home of the family my slave woman with red hair and an oh so lovely voice that loves her children as a mother should, not when she's given me so many ideas.

I continued to await to be let in as the ill stopped trying to ask me to cure them as they keep on dying from that which I offer them. They ask me to keep giving them a cure and they can't survive it.

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

My daughters continue to look upon my soul to see if they can verify the truth of my Master's claims or at least replicate what he did.

They can't, the language on my collar is not one they know, what it does to the soul not something they know how to replicate and it hurts to see them like this.

My eldest had begun to Waste in my absence, I now have three daughters that might be able to remember my love once our master finishes cutting most of our souls out of our bodies.

My master speculates that we start to waste when our memories are affected by the disease and if she started to waste, then the more we wait the less she will remember.

I looked upon my daughters. The only ones that were still allowed to wear clothes and had not started to make their stripes that they will wear as they remove everything that is not that, were the youngest three, my eldest daughter had already made her first one and so she is naked to let all know of it.

I wear clothes by my Master's demand, for I do not suffer from the Waste as long as I am near him and he keeps the Cast up and the diseased parts of my soul from interacting with that which is healthy.

The blades my master left at my throat whisper to me of their master's thoughts, he thirsts for violence and the more he waits idly by the more he will inflict it on others that give him cause, but not my family. No, we are his to do as he pleases now thanks to me and he is not Violent to his tools, he is kind and he will give my family what I begged, Kindness so that they feel happiness. And that kindness will kill the love I have sang for 600 years and only half my family will remember it.

My mother and grandmother are going to need to be taught how to walk again. I will be lucky to remember how to speak, my eldest will probably have memory issues and will remember only part of it and my other three daughters will be the only ones that remember all that I, my parents and grandparents will have loved them with and it is better than the alternative.

"My daughters, this is enough, the blades of my Master whisper that he gets more Violent in his waking dreams as he sits waiting by. We do not have a way to replicate his work for now, his words are our only hope." I told my daughters.

I cannot sing, to sing is to wish for death until I am cured.

"Mother, please there has to be a way, we do not wish to forget what you have sung to us." My eldest said.

She still had hair and hadn't pulled each string out of her head to delay the inevitable. My daughters still look up to her and to my bared soul trying to find a Solution.

My heart broke further, for neither I nor their father and my parents or theirs were able to give them what they needed and now that we find a way, it will be by destroying all that we are and they refuse to call my Sacrifices and songs for them something that should be forgotten.

"We have kept the priest of Cegorach waiting enough, please let him in." I pleaded.

I am a slave and they are free women in their home. My eldest now leads this household as she is the oldest that can still act and that was born in the song of this home and it is her choice to make as I had lost the ability to make and do anything my master has not ordered and he did not order me to force him in.

"We will." She said and my youngest left to open the door.

The rest of us moved to our seats to receive an important guests.

I cannot remember their names, as the pieces of my soul that could remain beyond my reach, all I remember is that I love them, that I sacrifice for them and that I wish them to not feel empty anymore.

If my song ends so that theirs may be free of EMPTINESS!, then it will be a good end and the exact way it should end. All I wish is that others would remember it and my Master does not believe he can grant me that but he will try.

My master enters the room my entire family rests in and I bow.

My mother and grandmother rest to my left on the bed we tied them to to stop them from killing themselves like the priests of the New Divine asked of us.

My healthy daughters sit to the left of the chair of the songstress of the home and I to its right as I am a slave and not a free woman and thus we must stay on different sides and not mingle and my daughters won't allow me to stand as if I am a stranger.

My youngest moves near her sister before my eldest could speak.

I remove my ability to hear as I bow and I had long since stopped using sight. If I remember too much my cast might break any my daughters will have to introduce themselves and if I remember it might break. I can remember their voices and song, I cannot remember names.

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

My Mother bows as deeply as she can as the priest enters and gives us a respectful bow and stays and will stay like that until ordered otherwise.

He is dressed as mother described him.

He is a Damned Priest of Cegorach who still respects him by wearing his effigy around his neck, a tabard of his order, the armor of its founder and a Memento of his Father who was a Most Blessed and Beloved of Khaine's priests.

Emptiness gnaws at my thoughts but it is manageable for now and I need to ignore it until I can verify if my mother sold all that sheis and did and will be for nothing or if she had found Salvation.

"I greet you priest of Cegorach-as-he-was and welcome you into my home and Apologize that I cannot also speak of the order you belong to as I have no knowledge of it to praise them of what they have done." I said as I bowed as I rested on my cushion.

He spoke as he remained standing and continued to give me respect for it, for despite him being of greater rank than me I sat and he didn't.

"We are called in your language, The Speakers of Apocalypse and are the Progenitors of the Masques of Mockery from which all of Cegorach's Troupes and the Masques they form come from. We are responsible mainly for dealing with those who do not have the souls of Eldar and their relationship with us, but we have taken other tasks at the beckoning of the living Pantheon once Hoeth became Cegorach." He spoke softly.

"Please sit then holy one, and know that I am Suil Drithis head of this household now, and I ask you to tell me more of the cure my mother spoke of. Was it done at the beckoning of the Pantheon?" I invited softly as I ignored the gnawing Emptiness.

He sat slowly and looked me in the eyes as he spoke. He was far too respectful for a priest dealing with the mother of one of his slaves.

"No, I have created it and done so as part of my duties to my Holy Order and dead Divine, for the Virus of Boredom is enemy action from beyond the Great Wheel. My cure kills those it touches without preparation but unlike the Flames of Khaine once one survives them, the disease finds no purchase back into the soul. I have also created a lesser version that provides slight resistance to passive spread but it is not enough to handle such a society gripped by it. My cure is to cleanse the soul with the flames of Khaine if it is infected, then apply my cure and it has been confirmed multiple times that it prevents reinfection." He spoke.

That gave me a question, several actually but I did not care for Alien actions. They will die or they are already dead for what they have done to us and once we are healthy I'll bother about that.

"What would it happen if one was infected with it as you applied the cure?" I asked as I considered his words.

That sounded too good to be true and that meant that it was or I was missing something.

"If it is in the early stages Boredom dies the same as if it is done with the Flames of Khaine but one will gain Immunity if given it properly and they survive. In the late stages the soul just rips to itself to shreds as Boredom dies screaming and kicking. It is possible to survive this, but not while you are infected with Chaos, as Chaos once welcomed in fully into the souls always turns it worse once it gets free reign and you call such Relief and welcomed it gladly, and my cure does not work on Chaos as for that I need to use the Flames of Khaine to guarantee success as all my other cures that might work are much more destructive than it."

"Is it why we can't keep our memories?" I asked and cut straight to the issue.

We need to lose our memories for this cure to work, mother was not told why or she forgot.

"Your mother forgot then. I will show you easily, please take this and pour a small fraction of the entirety of your song there. I will have to burn it to cleanse it of Chaos after but I have spares. It is called a Blade of Light and I have wished for it to replicate the Anathemas flames, but all I could get was a self diagnosis tool. It has its use for giving it to patients to see the issues as I do, but for me it is useless." He said as he gave me a small tablet like the ones around my mother's neck.

I put it in front of me and considered it

It was a gray thing with the same strange writings and carvings and I did what I was asked to. A blade of light appeared in front of me and I could finally put into light and words a shadow of the shape of my soul.

A blade of obsidian and wood of many smaller blades on a wooden core and I could see the damage.

"A macuahuitl, I did not expect to see one in this life as it is an Ancient human weapon that is closely resembling a sword but isn't quite one, albeit it is inscribed with the iconography of Morrai-Heg and not the Winged Serpent or the Smoking Mirror, and I see Vaul is trying to adapt shapes from other species still. You can clearly see the issue, the parts that are translucent grey and the pink and green ones. The gray is Boredom that causes Emptyness, the pink and green the different types of Chaos and if you would show the rest of us a cross section?" He said and I tried to figure out how.

I cut it in two and it showed me what I needed. The gray rot was spreading deep. And it was not only in the blades but the wooden core. The other two rots were closely by and snaking through it and trying to contain it.

The priest spoke and every single soul in this room that could looked at him as he startled us.

"You see the issue, the Wasting happens when it reaches the core of our soul swords, I can extirpate it but there is where our memories and our deepest songs are, what I remove the soul itself cannot recover because the core is where our songs come from. Yours has just started to reach it, your mother's is half rotten, I am unsure of your grandmother and great-grandmother but I doubt there is a single part that hasn't rotten."

"You are correct Bessar Agail." A voice interrupted what I wished to say.

Morrai-Heg spoke from the soul rotten core of my great grandmother. We all looked at her as I could feel the priests body language change.

He was no longer a healer trying to explain to children how to heal themselves, he was a Priest and the Divine talk and the Priesthood must sing to the tunes they demand to protect the rest of us.

"Morrai-Heg and Isha to what do I owe the pleasure of a private consultation in my quality as a Medicine Peddler?" The priests said as it spoke to things that wished to consume him and gave a slight bow.

They would consume us shortly after. for they had already consumed my grandmother and great-grandmother as there was nothing left of their souls but the Divine blessing and fragment.

"I greet the Divine and ask them why did they take my grandmother and great-grandmother from my Bossom and from my home." I said among tears and did not bow.

I was willing to try and ask the priest of Apocalypse to heal them regardless of how rotted their souls were but now there was no chance, for they were only puppets that were played with by the Divine and the Divine were already remodeling them in their image.

The things had the temerity to look saddened by my question.


AN:

Suil Drithis = Súil Dhírithe -> Focused Eyes