Chapter 59

Chapter 59: To learn of your past is to learn of yourself.


The Eldar I have found, are infuriating to work with, even when they favor you.

Bessar Agail is my current employer after he had given me and my men the chance at being part of something greater. He gave us the option to serve a greater purpose and doom ourselves and our descendants or spend our lives doing something worthwhile but that might not serve a greater purpose.

There is a feeling that could be said to describe it beyond confusion but my mind was preoccupied by another.

"It itches sir." Maria said.

Maria Nova, Marcus Nova, Aurelian Nova, Amelliano Rossi, Ardito Abano and Asia Agosti, those are the names of the idiots who now follow me as we try to find meaning in this life. Three orphans and three fellow faithful in the words of the Redeemer, they are six souls I now must look after.

It itches me too, but it does not itch as much as when the medics gave us an expired antiviral batch because our sector received the last batches and they forgot to put them in freezers.

As always.

"It'll pass Maria, like the last time." I assured her.

We've all felt our bones itch before, this will pass like the last time.

"Is it normal for your bones to itch?" Bria Cinea asked us in our own tongue.

They've decided that the Siccaran language would become the standard language of the Cult of Strife, now that the majority of its members speak it.

The Decision was done after Bessar came and told us he found us someone that can provide us with the biological enhancements he promised us and Vect did not impress us. He did not insult us, but it became obvious he was not interested in us and we've unanimously decided we would go with those that actually welcome us.

Home is where the heart is and your heart belongs to the home that welcomes you and the Cult of Strife welcomed us and so we'll don the Red Tear the moment our service to Bessar Agail ends.

"No it is not, but we are used to it." I answered gruffly.

All of the women frowned at my words but did not speak further and instead just talked to themselves mind to mind. I decided to ignore that reaction, they will either tell me why they did so or they won't. I stopped expecting Eldar to be direct in what they do when they do it as they'll just explain it later to make themselves feel smarter.

If they wish to play their games to make themselves feel smarter I will just play mine and pretend to not noticing it to make sure I get the information I seek by doing nothing. They get to feel smart and I get to do nothing except act surprised when they have to tell me what they have been up to.

Truly a win-win situation.

We walked in formation, humans armed with our ranged weapons at the center to provide cover with our ranged weapons and Eldar with their swords and pistols on the edges ready to engage any would be attackers, not that there are any. Protected by my men in-between us were the two girls that were under age yet were older than me.

Bessar Agail has an effect on Eldar I was told and I see that said effect is terror. This entire city recoiled in fear at anything even associated to him, as where he walked death followed.

We walked in peace as we reached the sight of the ritual and Bessar Agail and Asdrubael Vect mentally thought at one another.

I nodded at his blades and they nodded back to us as they let us approach. I did not believe the Eldar had professionals, but I am glad to be proven wrong.

"Ah Lieutenant Marcus Aurrus, I trust you are well?" My employer asked me.

I put my right palm to my chest and my left went rigid at my side as I saluted.

"Lieutenant Marcus Aurrus reporting from the medical exam, sir. We can feel the differences, but we also feel a strange itching in our bones." I reported.

My men saluted as well from behind me.

The formality and ritual were the only things left of our home and despite us not being welcomed in it it is still home and I wished to keep some small part of it with me.

"At ease officer, come and sit with me, for we have something important to discuss. Also if the itch does not disappear in three days you will go back to the flesh sculptor to check and make sure that you are well, as I am pretty sure your bones shouldn't be able to itch." Bessar Agail offered as he motioned for me to sit with him.

"We will do so sir, but it is not the first time our bones itch. Is this about the choices you've given us as to our mission? If so we've decided that we will go with the Cult of Strife." I answered as I sat down.

Behind me, my men did the same.

Bessar Agail smiled at my answer.

'He truly does not care what we chose as long as we felt we had power over our destiny.' I realized.

He had told me that he hates tyrants, and even now he gave us the one thing my home had never given me. He had given me the chance to choose my destiny and make that decision be worthwhile.

"I see… I will have to find Vect another gift then, as he had just finished his final lesson with me far ahead of schedule. No matter, I have something else in the works for him anyway" He replied.

The now master of Deceit, by whatever weird definition of the concept Eldar used, did not look too bothered by it. This only served to tell me that we've made the right choice, as the chance at greatness can go to hell.

I am not taking those that entrusted their lives to me somewhere where their lives and deaths won't be appreciated.

"I thank you for giving us a choice in the path we take towards our future." I said as I bowed.

The gesture felt foreign to me, even as I was told many human cultures practice it. Nonetheless it felt appropriate to the situation I found myself in.

"You have little to thank me for Lieutenant. We will embark on a dream ritual, all but two of you will participate in it as I need someone to stay and guard us as something stirs in the shadows. I imagine it is the forces of the princes finally realizing I exist. And I thought the princes and princesses of the World of Clashing Blades were tardy, but the princes of this world are downright lazy." Bessar Agail replied with annoyance clear in his voice.

I did not care much for tardiness or laziness, my men will be in danger and I need to look after them. Also I doubt I'll need to worry for the princes in question either as my employer does not seem like the kind of man to offer measured responses to insults or slights.

One of those that will stay awake will be me, but who else would stay with me? Asia Agosti, perhaps? She's the one I'm the least familiar with and I might get the chance to know her better.

"We'll do it Lieutenant, private Aurelian Nova and private Amelliano Rossi will stand guard. We don't want to bother with the ritual anyway and would rather just shoot something." Two of my fools replied before I could volunteer.

"Excellent, also Lieutenant don't be mad at them as I wouldn't have allowed you to not come, as I need you to participate in the ritual." Bessar interjected before I could.

"Can you still read our minds? I thought our armor prevented it." I replied in annoyance.

Our hosts told us our 'songs' is incredibly annoying to listen to and the armor Bessar Agail made for us were meant to prevent them form being able to listen in on our thoughts.

"I did not read your minds or listen to your soul, I can easily see it on your face that you were annoyed. You forgot, but I am a diplomat, one trained specifically in dealing with humans and while my family, apprentice and blades aren't familiar enough with your facial expressions, I most definitely am. Also, your armor prevents us from hearing your thoughts without actively meaning to, it does not stop us from doing so if we actually try to do it so please don't rely on it for actual protection from telepathy." Our employed answered.

I sighed at his words. He tends to make me sigh a lot.

"Yes sir, Aurelian, Amelliano look after us while we take our beauty sleep." I told to the two as I turned back slightly to see them.

Both of them were to my right so it was easy to look them in they eye and promise vengeance with my eyes. If I died sleeping or worse found them dead before I awoke then death would not save the idiots.

"Yes sir!" The two shouted back.

Their eyes laughed as they looked at my smoldering ones. The fools at least had no regrets.

I can respect that and I will continue to respect it tomorrow as I give them extra drills.

'People on ritual duty don't have drills the next day, but those that stay up all night do.' I thought with malice.

And if someone can't do the work, others will do it for them, for work can never be left undone and tomorrow my two subordinates will do the drills reserved for seven people.

The fools noticed my expression and their eyes stopped looking like they were laughing as they understood that they will pay for their cheeck. I turned back to Bessar Agail.

"When do we start?" I asked.

"In an hour, I will show you where to lay down as you and your men need to stay in a specific area." He told us.

The time passed quickly as we prepared to go to sleep.

Five humans stood on one side in a circle as we rested and prepared to sleep. We had been given a pillow and blanket and could slowly feel sleep take us as whatever Bessar's ritual was meant to be doing started. To the other side, five eldar experienced the same thing.

I could feel myself growing drowsier and drowsier and I could hear something strange as I stood between wakefulness and sleep. I could hear the thundering cheers of warriors as they prepared to butcher their foes and I could feel that they were my comrades. They felt like kin and yet they were alien.

It felt like home should feel.

I awoke under a canopy of alien stars.

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

"They fell asleep." my daughter, Suil Drithis said.

The humans and eldar went to sleep as Bessar remained meditating. The last of our lord-husband's blades, a tall woman by the name of 'Careful Hands' remained awake and stood near the two human mercenaries.

The humans were cute, small too, in the way they thought. Bessar told us their thoughts are born out of games the same ours are born of trickery and we could see it now.

Marcus Aurrus may pretend not to play with us, but we could see the game he and his subordinates loved to play with us by pretending they don't understand when they are tricked and by acting clueless or flat out ignoring our attempts at trickery, they both play a game and trick us into answering questions they did not need to ask to get the answer to.

I do not know how Bessar managed to manipulate us into this arrangement, but I do not believe not even a little bit, that we came to this solution by accident. Bessar Agail is a priest, they manipulate others and plot with greater ease than they breathe and this smelt of deceit and trickery done out of love,

"The swords are singing." The blade of Bessar Agail said.

We could hear them loudly as they sung in glee, for their favored prey was near.

The Swords of Valor are the first of Bessar Agail's Murderous Medicine for the Soul of Eldar and are by far his most favored children, with only the soul burner he actually calls his Failed Son coming anywhere close to the love he holds for them.

He created them to cure those who would dare think that eating lost and lonely children was something worthwhile from their stupidity. They were taught by their older princely brother to sing and they have learned to lie in wait and pretend to stupidity to lure their prey which loves to exist beyond perception.

Now they thunder in glee across the clearing as their prey grows near.

We can't see them, we don't even know if they are near but the Blades of Valor know it, for the things that hide from us are their prey, and their creator made sure they can sense that which they were created to hunt and kill.

"They crave for violence like their creator, so unless they start cutting things they shouldn't be leave them to it, Bessar made them to be like this." I told her.

She and the rest of her fellow blades had not been told of the things beyond perception. We would not do so, for it is up to our husband to do so to his sworn blades.

"Something stirs in the shadows." Grandmother sang to us.

The humans did not need to be told to shoot, they'd already donned their spherical helmets and shot at anything that looked like it could move. Each shot three streams of shards wherever they could spot or hear any leaves rustling. Six streams, each a second long and no screams.

"Aurelian, Amelliano conserve ammo, they'll try to make you waste it." I sang to the two.

"Yes ma'am." The two said as one.

We can't sense whatever shadow swords the lords, priests or princes have sent but the Sword of Valor continue to sing and they will attack whatever comes too close. They won't need refilling for now as our husband keeps them fed, and the humans have enough ammo on them for an entire hour of continuous firing now that there are only two of them to fire.

We don't know how many of them our husband put in the five towers that separate the ritual site from the rest of the clearing but what is on the surface is probably dwarfed by what lays beneath it. All we know is that his entire arsenal had been emptied to protect this spot from whatever comes and there's enough Swords of Valor here to protect this clearing from armies.

I considered using the gun-swords our husband gave us, but just trying to use them in battle was counter-intuitive and difficult for us. Learning to use them is easy in and of itself, but battle has a rhythm to it and the way the gun-swords operate require us to radically change the way we act and think to use them. Even then, a sword and pistol are both easier to use and do not break once they run out of ammo and the pistols are far slower in running out of ammo too. I do not like using them and I do not understand how my husband can use hundreds of them at a given time.

Most of us struggle to use two, and can barely use one in battle which is why we don't bother using them.

My young loved them though, for they are the ones protected by the Swords of Valor the most. The Sword of Valor can also act by themselves if needed be, the older Swords of Valor that have learned to sing at least, so they are a good weapon to protect children with.

"Come out interlopers, you intrude on a ritual and reward for a successful apprenticeship to a priest." My daughter and Lady of the House ordered.

The shadows remained silent for many heartbeats.

Eventually a woman came out of the shadows in front of my daughter. She bowed deeply in front of her before introducing herself. Her shadows lengthened and shortened by the moment and each time they did so flesh was replaced by some other thing only to return a bit later.

"I greet you Fierce Lady, I am a shadow of Hoec and I am not associated with the other shadows present. I am here only to deliver a letter to Bessar Agail from his First Daughter. I wish for it to be delivered to him personally and I am on instructions from the priests of Cegorach to not have it be read by any but him. I kindly ask you to not involve me in your current conflict." She said as she remained bowed.

"You will wait out of sight until my husband finishes his ritual. It should be done around sunrise." She spoke imperiously.

"I will do so, thank you for the consideration." She replied.

One heartbeat she was there, the next she was not.

"Spooky." Aurelian said.

That word most aptly describes the faithful of Hoec, for they are the shadows of the Webway that keep things one shouldn't see away from your eyes. Nobody likes them, or wishes to associate with them, but they are everywhere in the Empire. Every secret one keeps is known to them, every misdeed recorded and none can see them when they wish to not be seen for their bodies and soul were reforged for stealth and to obscure things from sight.

"Yes, but she is not something we should bother with, as she's a messenger here to deliver a letter to Bessar. Our husband can deal with that nonsense." I sang to the humans who could not understand the conversation.

Shadows do not deliver letters, so whatever that nonsense is about is not something I wish to bother with.

The two nodded and continued to remain vigilant.

A hiss came from Amelliano and I immediately started a mind-bridge between themselves, me and my daughter Bria Cinea. She is the one most familiar with how their minds operate, besides Bessar, and can make the experience comfortable for them and understandable for the rest of us while I maintain it.

There's a lot of needed workarounds and compromises needed to coordinate and not let our foes know we are planning something, or at the very least what we are planning, but we have decided that they are worthwhile pursuits. I made sure I did not turn to him as I did so in order to not make his hiss look like a sign.

No eldar knew exactly all of the ways humans use to communicate or why so we will use this to our advantage.

"The shadows are lengthening and shortening without light, there is a pattern and I think there's where the targets are. Can we start trying to corral them into a single location? We can reduce the places where they can be and you go make them regret being there." Aurelian thought at us.

Thinking at something is different from soul-song. Soul-song is emotion one translates into meaning, while thought is merely the transmission of information and it is done thought such an impersonal way it makes most eldar shudder, for it feels too empty and soulless to be used to talk with another. This is why we learned to use it to spook those that we don't like, for scaring morons and slavers is always a worthwhile pursuit.

The shadows continue to insult us by not identifying themselves when asked to, so their deaths are on themselves.

"I will talk with Aine Shi, as she is the only one of us with experience with them, to see if it can work." I replied and the connection cut off.

"Grandmother, the humans wish to try and corral the shadows into a spot and see if it can force them somewhere we can stab them. Do you think it might work?" I sang to her.

"It might work, but we are not going to be doing that. The shadows are fighting one another and once one side wins the other will come and talk. Tell the humans to pick targets of opportunity if they see them but to do nothing beyond that." She told me.

I transmitted this to the men and they did do so.

As the minutes passed blood occasionally spilled where they fired but no corpses were found.

One hour later a woman in a dark purple armor approached us and the humans immediately fired and killed her before she could say a word.

I was annoyed by it up until I saw that the one that was killed carried the mark of the New Divine.

"Good job, we have no reason to talk to vermin." Suil Drithis, my eldest daughter and Lady of the House said.

The rest of us silently congratulated the men with the hand sign they told us is meant to do so, as both our groups hate the vermin that grovels to the trash that infects the New Divine. For us it is because they had infected us with it claiming that it would save us, but all it did is make healing more difficult and our lives more painful.

For the humans it is because those that brought them here did so carrying that emblem, and we would never hold killing those that had killed and eaten their families and friends against them.

The humans were showing signs of stress from seeing it and Bria Cinea went to console them. The humans described the phenomenon where certain sights, smells or sounds would bring them to the edge of madness and mental instability as Shell Shock. It appears in them after traumatic experiences and Bessar told us that without erasing the memories from their minds there is no actual guaranteed cure as some learn to deal with it, and others stop experiencing with little in the way of telling ahead of time how they will deal with it.

My daughter was the one responsible for bringing the humans back from that threshold as not even Bessar could do so.

"Another individual is coming, do not shoot him, for he comes to speak with us on the orders of a prince." My daughter and Lady of the House told us in common eldar.

The men also lowered their guns as she did so, which meant she sang to them in the language as well.

"I greet you Fierce Ladies and mercenaries, I am a shadow in the service of the Prince Reaga Namathuad. I apologize for spooking you, but I have come to extend an invitation to the priest Bessar Agail to join my master for dinner and to discuss a topic of interest to him that I was not made aware of." He said.

We considered his words at least the man was polite and explained himself properly, the issue being that our husband is unlikely to say yes, as he has finished his mission on this world. Once Vect receives his gifts all of us will leave and not return here.

We will go to the World of a Thousand Names to group up with our husband's clan, trying to see if any there are any willing to join us, then go to the border worlds of the Empire and see about liberating the human slaves there.

"You will return in the morning and make your case, but know that Bessar Agail is unlikely to reply favorably." My daughter replied.

"I will do so and thank you for your mercy." He said as he too turned into a shadow and disappeared.

I sincerely hoped no more shadows would be coming as they were quite annoying.

We were cheated out of a proper marriage and we want to deal with at least a part of what our new position entails, and the more we are stuck on this world the less time we have to try and see if we can't spend it with our new extended family.

~~~~~~~~~~

The world slipped away as I entered the dream world where five humans and five eldar waited for me.

"How long did it take me to reach here?" I asked.

We were in the dream world so all of the heard me clearly in their native tongue.

"A few minutes sir, you looked transparent for most of it." The Lieutenant asked as he helped me to my feet.

"Good, we shouldn't be late then." I replied.

"Late for what Bessar Agail? This place seems quite empty of anything that would require us to rush" Vect asked.

"The explosions naturally. They should start in a few minutes, now please follow me for I know a good spot where we can see them from." I said and started to walk.

The individual in whose memory we are should be visible shortly.

"What is that?" The Lieutenant asked as he pointed to the giant metal walkers.

Every single individual in our group except myself was suddenly on guard.

"The smallest ones that are roughly our size are Men of Iron, infomorphs in bodies of steel and silicon, the giants are the Standard Federation of Man Warriors, the Knight Walkers and I don't think I need to tell you what a tank is don't I?" I told him.

The tanks were probably larger than anything they've seen but they were recognizably tanks There were millions of the Men of Iron and tens of thousands of the knights arranging themselves as they prepared for a fight.

"I am pretty sure most human warriors are made out of flesh." He replied in a flat tone.

My voice was quite mournful.

"You have lost much my friend. These armies were normal before the Cybernetic Revolt, but we are centuries before that nonsense. This battle is one between our peoples in the small conflict that preceded it." I told my audience.

We continued to walk among the knights and Men of Iron as they ignored us, no to ignore us meant they had the ability to even spot us, which they did not. We are not here, we can't be ignored, we are merely remembering what someone else went through.

"Come, the spot I have in mind is close, just past that hill." I informed my audience.

We went up the hill slowly and as we reached its peak we saw it, the 100 meters tall god-machine and engine of war, a Titan, and a proper one at that, and not the half-breeds the tech priests of Mars call as such. It was an edifice dedicated to War as it created with one hand and destroyed with another and it's pure white sheen threatened to blind us all.

I did not need ears to hear the shock of my audience as the titan moves and built orbital siege weapons as it walked. Where the bipedal thing walked it found empty rocks and as it moved past them it left industry and weapons as it turned a blasted rock into a fortress.

"I present to you my audience, a human Titan of War and we had found it just in time, for its war starts now. Look upon the stars up in the sky and know that they belong to the Eldar and look upon them as they die as humanity rages against the Heavens." I shouted joyfully as I gesticulated to the star filled sky and turned to them.

My audience did as I asked and their gasps were music to my ears.

Eldar ships shined in the sky in the tens of thousands and were met by the might of a Titan which was given months to prepare and it would make sure its foes paid for that indulgence.

Reality bled darkness as the sun dimmed from it's bright white into a deep red as it grew to encompass the entire sky and reality cried in pain as millions of guns sang in thunder and death and they sang for the death of reality.

My blades, my mercenaries and even Vect looked upon the death of reality with fear and I looked upon them and laughed at it, for it seems my lesson had properly started.

Reality bled and was reforged, my bones echoed with the might that would break reality and a single voice could be heard as it drowned existence itself in its Might.

"Greetings knife ear, would you mind letting me into the joke before I atomize you and your fellows? You got me curious as to what could make you so joyful as your kinsmen die in the millions up into sky." The titan whose memory we were in spoke.

He shouldn't have been able to do that.


AN: Reaga Namathuad= Realtóga geala na mara thuaidh.→ Brightest stars of the north seas.