Chapter 67:

Chapter 67: One must See what comes for them and where they must go.


Farseers can see far, but we can see little, while seers can't see very far, but what they do See they can see it well.

A seer asks of the Future and the Past 'What is Happening?' and so they will see plenty and then proceed to form a plan based on the information gleamed. A farseer on the other hand asks of the Future and the Past 'How do I do it?' and then proceeds to do it.

The two were meant to compliment each other and yet we rarely worked together well, but this is going to change soon out of sheer need and it already started.

The Priesthood of Cegorach-as-he-was used our kind, the farseers, as weapons against others but never against our kind, then when we would reach a certain age they would erase our memories and arrange for us to live a life they found good, a life filled with what the Eldar called love and happiness and a kind home.

My foolish predecessors decided that being guaranteed freedom from the priests scheming after several centuries of service was unappealing to their deranged minds and now I, Lammor, have to stay on Craftworld Anaen to avoid the wrath of the Priests, for I became a farseer not knowing that it would offend my Mistress and I ran when I sensed her anger for me.

My own Mistress which has taught me how to See in exchange for service offered me a deal from beyond the Grave after I had taken the path of the Farseer, for it was one that appealed more to me than that of a Seer and I did not know what it would lose me. Her deal was simple, I would assist her in her scheme on the world I had become a prince on and which I am actively trying to forget the name of, then once I had fulfilled my role I would be allowed to enjoy her clemency for as long as I remained associated with Craftworld Anaen and served its interests.

My new home was also my prison, and it was a pleasant prison at least for I had a cute junior to teach, even if he was a bit of a coward, but such is fine for he is still young as far as farseers go and has not yet learned the Lesson that if you want something done right then you must do it yourself.

"Why do we have to join you in this ritual farseer?" The seer with red long hair asked of me as she sneered.

I am actively not thinking of their names to protect them, for the less likely the chance for a Priest or any associated with them to learn your name is, the better your chances at survival are. I hope my former people and successor will not remove that bit of the rituals I gave her, for it was the best defense I could find and give them from the Nonsense of the Priests and the others were pranks that I am sure she will learn to appreciate.

I miss those morons, as while their brains may have been half functional, they had their moments when they drew a genuine laugh out of me.

"Each of you decided to wonder why I have decided to request leave to visit my junior apprentice, and as such I will show you why. The least you and your sorry bunch of dim-witted fools can do is wait respectfully as I work." I informed the six seers and other farseer with false disdain.

They were boring most of the time but they were very smart individuals. You have to be to rule over a craftworld in constant peril and make it mightier by the day. If only they could turn their prodigious intellect to being funny, Cegorach might take mercy on us and be more lenient with his pranks.

"It's easier if you let the madman work, I've seen part of what he wishes to show us and why and it is better if we just get on it with it." My junior addressed the bunch of very miserable seers.

That seemed to shut down their retort at least and I was thankful for my junior who helps his senior farseer when he needs to deal with fools. He knew what awaited us and unlike the seers he was just tired as he's Seen too much it seems.

I have grown quite fond of my jailers, for they looked up to me. All except the seers that is, for they were just miserably boorish things that cared too much about useless things. At least my junior continued to be his cute little self as he helped his senior out with dealing with the boorish creatures he has to pretend are his superiors.

They don't know they already dance to our tune, but such is fine as appearances need to be maintained and the priests are already angry at us that we positioned ourselves in positions of privilege among our own people without us gloating about it.

Craftworld Anaen has been favored by the Priests of Cegorach and showered with threats, apocalypses misery and despair as we have fought for our very survival and the craftworld has been doing so for years ever since they have received a hero from Khaine to inform them that they are loved by Khaine and Cegorach and must grow mighty and they have learned that their new patrons will continue to shower them in gifts so that they will become Mightier still.

The death threat that comes for us is not the priests being tricky and making it so Anaen thinks they are in mortal peril when in fact they are favored beyond all other Craftworlds. It is the priests informing us quite simply that I am to present myself for my beating and they have made it quite clear why that is an excellent ideea.

The seers think that I am a coward that will run from it as the date I am to leave for my beating coincides with a doom they have not been able to see or even plan around but know it is coming. Fortunately for them I am not running, but averting it as Cegorach and his priesthood are removing the facade of trickery for Anaen and its people to see the difference between the trickery of the priests when they mean you well and when they are serious about your impending demise, for all that Craftworld Anaen has experienced so far has made it Mightier.

Refugees flock to us still, skills and artifacts are cataloged and shared and the craftworld grows in wealth and might with each threat we vanquish and each refugee that comes shares with us what knowledge they possess and we share all freely between ourselves so that we have as great a chance at survival from the Divine Trials we face. Already in less than 50 years this Craftworld could take on three of itself from before Tararithe Tagaste has been ordained as a Hero and surprisingly few of its inhabitants seem to care, because the dangers are increasing just as fast as they gain Might.

We need to finish with this ritual quickly, for an Orkish Whaagh approaches us still, but we've already plotted the demise of its Warboss.

"And done, sit in your positions and prepare to See as I See and I will guide you to that which you accused me of Cowardice for." I informed the Seers.

They haven't physically spoken it, but we've both seen what I planned to do and called me coward during our common rituals for it as we peered across time.

If there is a coward between us then its not myself as I have proven myself when I have decapitated the large host that had arrayed itself against us in one single charge, but the fools are too stupid to realize it, or what I have achieved by stealing the useless baubles from that harpy of a woman. She'll get her gems back when the son-in-law she hates will just buy it back for her.

The man is obscenely rich, even if he pretends he is not, and his payment will help our craftworld arm itself.

The eight of us, six Seers and two farseers, have gathered here in our robes to see why I have to leave when a great threat approaches us and I had just finished arranging the runes for the ritual that would show them both our doom and how I am trying to save us from it.

The seers and my cute junior took their positions around the ritual and arranged themselves around myself as I stood in its center. The Runes started to glow and by the time each of our hearts finished beating once we were Seeing five years into the future and we were seeing our Deaths.

We were on the bridge of 'The Most Graceful and Grateful Dancer' a battleship that was comparable in length to a Voidstalker of the Pirate Clans at 10 kilometers, but this ship was not made by our Craftworld or the Pirate clans, no it was the Home of Aisse Geara, First Daughter of Bessar Agail and protector of his legacy and both it and its Captain and builder were busy reducing Craftworld Anaen and its entire complement of defenses and thousands of ship and void-fighters to dust.

A single proper warship of the Empire was sent to escort me to my beating and it danced across space in its ever changing size as it's single weapon exterminated Anaen and its fleets alone. It did not have the logistic support of a Void Theater, but it did not need one to break a craftworld and its defenders with contemptuous ease. It was a warship and we were an an armed trade ship with some armed lifeboats and transports as guards and there was no competition between us and a warship of the Empire.

This wasn't a fight, but a message to Craftworld Anaen of what awaits us if they do not allow me to leave. The message was 'Obey or die.' and it was as direct as it could possibly be.

The ship itself which carried this message had three ship systems that put it in the second echelon of warships of the Empire of Ten Million Suns. It had a holo-field, which is perhaps the only piece or technology in which it was our equal and which was why it wasn't using it to drive home the message that we had no real choice but to obey.

The other two defense systems were the Space Folders and what I have taken to calling a Shuriken Canyon. I do not know what its Shipwrights call it but the name Shuriken Canyon fits, for it is a giant canyon going through and around the ship filled with shurikens that all but begged to dance across space towards us and the captain of the ship was more than happy to unleash them now.

The ship had three Space Folders, one that allowed it to reduce or increase the distance between itself and objects outside of it which served as both engine and shield system, another one which reduced its size as it wished and allowed it to fly even through eldar sized Webway Gates and served as a secondary shield system and another one which served as a part of its only weapons system.

The third Space Folder was internal and it allowed a large number of Bonesingers to produce giant shuriken ammo blocks for the largest shuriken weapon our people ever bothered to make and fired it endlessly since they have left their dock and this combination of Space Folder and Shuriken Canyon formed the only weapon of the Battleship.

The shurikens themselves were the same size as that of a pistol, but each traveled at 98% of the speed of light while in it, as the Canyon accelerated them beyond what any speed things that large should be accelerate at and said projectiles traveled in streams of thousands.

The shurikens flew inside the Shuriken Canyon as the Space Folder made them even smaller still and the bonesingers continued to sing more and more ammo blocks for the weapon that never stops firing, and in doing so they accumulate tens of thousands of projectiles a minute which continue to fly inside the specially prepared vacuum room with artificial gravity inside the Shuriken Canyon where projectiles await for the chance to hit something as they fly at ever increasing speeds. And that something was Anean and its fleets now, which were overwhelmed by having a single ship shoot more wraithbone at them than went into their construction.

And of the holo-fields? They could not see beyond the holo-fields, but they counteracted them by just filling the Void with Wraithbone projectiles that traveled in streams one after another. If ships had holo-fields that made them appear to be in 16 places than all of those 16 places were hit with a stream of shurikens that exploded on impact with the force of a celestial objects.

I turned towards the woman standing on her Command Throne and told the others that were with me six words.

"Kneel you fools, I will talk." I said harshly as my words carried into their thick skulls.

They were busy cataloging our new defenses and judging their effectiveness and planning how to use the information they gleamed from this vision when they should be groveling in front of our host, for she could see and hear us and we were in her seat of power.

"I hope you appreciate my invitation and hospitality Farseer Lammor and Seer Council of Anaen." The woman from a possible future spoke to us who came from the past.

She should not have been able to do that, but the First Daughter of Priests was favored beyond all others in their family, for it is to First Daughters and First Sons that their Priestly parents grant the holy task of defending their own families as they dance for the Divine and Mortals alike and thus shower them in gifts so that they may keep them safe.

This ship's main weapon's design was one her priestly father had requested of his fellow priests be built 60 million years ago and it had been refined and simplified to such an extent ever since that the shipwrights of the World of a Thousand Names could build it as a gift from one father to his daughter. This ship and it's weapon could only be built by those that knew the exact rituals and songs and those were only known by the woman in front of me, but the individual ship systems were gifted to the World of a Thousand Names and its princess too to ensure their fortification efforts can escalate further.

There was no trickery, no art, no tragedy and no nonsense this ship tolerated. This ship and others like it were created for when the Eldar had had enough of everyone's Nonsense and decided to teach them who ruled the galaxy still, and now such a ship was sent towards my new home to ensure I would not try to run and that the Seers stopped trying to keep me from saving their miserable lives.

The others were already kneeling on the floor by the time she finished speaking and I bowed to the woman with long Gray Hair and Gray Eyes dressed in a white blank armor. The only accessory on her was a single yellow crystal containing the soul of a human Titan.

I could hear it cheer and laugh at the deaths of our people but I could not understand the language, only its joy which could not be mistaken for anything else.

"We do, First Daughter of Bessar Agail, and thank you kindly for it." I responded to the woman as I rose from my bow.

She was looking at me now and her face was blank of the warmth that should have accompanied her words. She was now busy making sure that each Eldar corpse in the void received a projectile thrown into them and turned to dust from the resulting energy transfer now as our fleets died in less than the ten minutes we have spent in this vision of the Future so far.

Priests are at their most dangerous when they are serious, and I do not know how my junior apprentice did it, but he made the Priests of Cegorach drop the mask that they are anything but Singing Swords as they repaid what they owed him and so they sent us a death threat to ensure we comply.

As far as death threats went this was a particularly frightening one which I am sure made her father quite proud.

"I trust my father's message has been received?" She asked.

I looked back at the shivering seers that saw all that they have built up die and turn to dust in less than ten minutes then turned back to my host.

"Yes my lady, it has and Anaen agrees to grant me leave for me to receive my punishment as long as a transport can be provided back, as I most likely won't be able to walk back on my own after my beating." I replied calmly as I pretend this was a friendly visit and not a shakedown we were cordially invited to.

Another salvo that traveled even faster than the previous ones left the Shuriken Canyon to catch up to the shots that missed their intended targets or went through them to ensure that no target except what they wished to hit was destroyed. Our Craftworld was already dead and all of our corpses in the void were double tapped to reinforce the message.

She thought of my words as she frowned and I started to sweat inside at the thought I perhaps insulted her.

"Fair enough, a transport will take you back home once you have come to visit your younger apprentice to my Aunt. Ulthuan awaits you and I will come to collect you once I have finished building my home, but what do you think of it, my home? Isn't it lovely?" She asked as she gave me a radiant smile.

I looked it over and saw that it was indeed lovely. The bridge was decorated in warm colors and painted and sculpted to as welcoming as it could be, for it was a home first and warship second as far as its captain and maker was concerned. It was also empty of all life except the nine of us now.

I did not see the craft of Cippani Oiair and this gave me an idea.

"It is a beautiful Home Aisse Geara, and I can see the Love you put into it as it made it Mighty, but if I may add a suggestion? I am not seeing the work of your husband in it and it is a shame for his craft is mighty and deserves to be a part of your Home." I added with what I hoped was my most disarming smile.

She laughed softly at it as her eyes glinted in amusement.

"Oh, but my husband did add his craft to our home, but it would be quite strange to add his medicine to this ship's systems outside of the Infirmary wouldn't you agree?" She responded and I felt the danger I was in rise.

I should not be doing this most likely, this ship is already obscenely Violent and Deadly, but I need to seize any chance fg her thinking of me fondly, and giving her a way to honor her father and husband more was bound to help me and my new home.

"I know of your husband's and father's craft my lady, but turning this beautiful Home into Medicine too would honor him and the craft of your father as well, for this ship is both Home and Blade and it should be both Home and Medicinal Blade to honor them." I riposted.

She stood up and thought of it as her face turned into a frown then back into a genuine smile as she rose from her Command Throne and approached me. She stopped right in front of me and I could see that her eyes were made of Violence now.

I was talking to a Small Singing Sword of the Ancients and not one of the Children of the Stars.

"What talented tongue and crafty mind you have Lammor. I agree with you that those additions would honor and respect both my father and husband and I am nothing if not a Respectful First Daughter to my father, so know that you have earned a favor from me for this idea for it appeals to me greatly." She said joyfully as her lovely voice echoed across the bridge.

"I thank you for it kind lady, now with your leave I must prepare to return to my duties." I replied with confidence I did not hold.

I did not dare to move, even for a bow, for the creature in front of me still hasn't decided what she will do with me yet. The Small Singing Sword of the Ancients continued to look at me with amusement as she all but purred her next sentence.

"You may leave. You know when I will arrive for you, so make sure you have packed your bare necessities by then."

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

The webway echoed with the song of Strife and Anguish of our people.

One bunch of fools has found itself fighting with humans on a Maiden World they wished to settle, and bit more than they could chew as the 'primitives' they though they could easily remove from their world proved adept at war and despite their superior technology the humans had more ships and troops still.

It was a complete embarrassment on the part of the fools that thought they could just get a world for themselves by just finding a world and killing off the space-faring race that settled on it. They had plenty of empty worlds to settle and they chose the one with a space faring industrial nation on it due to their arrogance.

Saving them should be a fine first mission for my new Younger Sister to get her feet wet and we could perhaps Commandeer one of their ships to take us to Anaen assuming we couldn't convince them to just move there. As for their war?

Well I'll need to wait and see how that bit of nonsense is going as from the songs I am hearing, they most certainly aren't having an easy time.

"Shouldn't we stay away from the world currently at war, or at the very least get some support before heading in?" She asked me as I informed her of our first stop after leaving the 'World of Three Faces'.

"Unfortunately no. These idiots are where we are getting our reinforcements from for the actually dangerous missions." I informed my younger sister.

She sighed at my words but did not relent, as going into an active warzone was probably not the best start one could have on their path.

My first mission was escaping from a cult held world without being seen and it ended with me in a paradox it took me decades to close, soul injuries, time nonsense, being shot in the face with a plasma weapon and being hunted by the Craftworlders that shot me. If she wants to complain, she will not find any sympathy from me as her first mission is far easier than my own and failure does not guarantee death or a fate worse than death.

She even has someone more experienced with her too, while me and my other siblings did not.

"What are we trying to achieve here?" She asked of me in song.

"The Eldar would-be colonists decided to settle on a Maiden World some humans have settled before them and now both species are killing each other to extinction from the sound of it. Stopping the killing would be an excellent start and getting the idiots that started this conflict out of the mess they created before billions more die would be an excellent goal and start to your story." I informed her calmly as I continued walking through the tunnels.

"Billions." She sang numb with horror as the enormity of my words hit her.

She did not stop walking at least.

"Yes, human worlds that develop enough to get into space generally speaking have a population in the billions at the very least and judging by what I am hearing in the song of the conflict, the war is fought in space, in the air and on the ground, so billions of dead humans and possibly millions of Eldar idiots that decided that genocide is a great first act to founding a colony." I explained as my song was filled with annoyance.

I was more than annoyed but it would not do for Laciena Fiora to actually think I am angry, for she is still skittish around me. This meant I need to keep my emotions from leaking too much as we interact, as the last thing I want is for her to not be able to focus.

I most certainly was not happy to hear of Eldar deciding to genocide humans when they could have just settled on an empty world. It's not like it would be difficult to find an empty world as there are plenty of them.

We made certain of that.

"How do we stop them?" She asked and now treated her first mission as she should.

I was quite happy to hear her conviction, but I was angrier still that the civilian fools running from the Empire as they realize something is wrong and that they can't fight, or that the growing conflicts destroy the homes of and turn into refugees decided to just go and kill off an inhabited planet, and one populated by humans at that.

She will need to be as focused as she can be, for our mission might be less dangerous than my first one, but it is not safe.

"We go in, introduce ourselves by our rank as priests and diplomats of the Pantheon and try and see what the situation on the ground is. If we are lucky the eldar are not morons, merely bloodthirsty, and the humans are still capable of being diplomatic." I informed her.

I could feel her agreement with my course of action at least, but she still had questions which was an excellent thing

"Shouldn't we introduce ourselves before jumping into an actual warzone?" She asked.

"I have been trying to sing to someone, anyone on that world, but nobody wishes to respond or even acknowledge my attempts. I am assuming they don't have any that have trained their psychic ability to respond or pick up my calls for answers and I do not know or have any connection to anyone there so that I can push through the noise, so we have to go in blind until we hit the ground. Please continue asking questions as I wish to make sure I did not miss any obvious things in my planning." I responded.

I was quite proud of her, despite the regrettable circumstances of her recruitment and the fact that she is still underage she proves to be able to think. Her father, despite not understanding her situation and worries did try to give her the best education he could and I do not know if it came from this life or the last one but she possesses the two most rare of skills one could hold in this galaxy, and that is the ability to plan ahead and common sense.

They should be a part of the standard kit of any individual of any race capable of spaceflight, but yet my people may live until they are thousands of years old before they even hear of them, let alone possess them and the humans are little better.

"What do we do if it is not the Eldar but the humans that posses the Webway gate? What do we do if none of them are willing to talk or heed our authority? what do we if one of them is willing to hear us out but the other isn't? What do we do if negotiations fail?" She fired a rapid barrage of question.

We were minutes away from the Webway Gate at our current pace.

"If the humans hold the Webway gate we ask to talk with them, if they refuse and just shoot us until they run out of ammo we leave and find another world as this world only has one Webway gate. If the Eldar also hold the gate and just shoot or try to stab us we do the same.

If none are willing to hear us out but we aren't shot straight out of the gate we try and see if any of the sub-factions is not immediately hostile and we try to see if we can at least save some of them, or perhaps convince them to plead our case to their leaders.

If only one of them is willing to hear us, we help them win and kill off the others or see if we can't get them to leave and use them in my attempt to set the stage for the Imperium of Man or get to Craftworld Anaen to deliver the Sunheart and the message to Lammor and some gifts to his craftworld.

In the eventuality that we bring both sides to the negotiations table and negotiations fail our plans will depend entirely on the local circumstances, but our priority will be to extirpate the agitating elements and restart the conversation." I answered each of her questions in turn.

"What do we do if any of them are infected with Chaos or other things like it? You told me that Chaos will rise Ascendant over the galaxy if it is not properly stopped." She continued.

I did not need to even think about the answer to that.

"We exterminate the Vermin." I responded bluntly.

She nodded at that. She knew very well that we must destroy any trace of Chaos we find and if both sides were Vermin then I still have plenty of Flaming Swords in which my Failed Son sleeps.

I'll give him a new playground to play in before tucking him back to sleep if I have to.

We were in front of the Gate now and I looked at my Younger Sister as she prepared herself for stepping on a new world. The first time one steps on a new world is always the hardest.

"Are you ready?" I asked her softly.

She was hesitating now and I looked at her as she gathered her courage. I am waiting for her until she says yes.

"Yes." She sang back.

"Good." Was my answer

The gate opened and we stepped through it, straight to a human military cordon.

Soldiers armed with stubbers started screaming, and I recognized their language as English. There were tanks some sort of helicopter in the air and more gathered around us as the human panicked and I activated our shields.

I start the Soul-to-Mind bridge to each of them in the hope I would get an officer.

"Greetings I am Bessar Agail, Diplomat of the Pantheon of the Eldar and Priest of the same, I am here on an official mission to end the current conflict between our people, if any of those present is an officer or has a line of communication to your leaders, please contact them as I mean you no harm." I sang to their minds.

They responded by opening fire and I sighed as my Younger Sister screeched and hid behind me as she did not expect the first thing to happen as we stepped out of the gate would be getting shot at.

I sincerely hoped they stopped and actually got someone with authority to come talk, for my shield can only take three hours of sustained damage at this rate.

The tank and helicopters started firing too.

'Make that one hour.' I thought in amusement.

Both myself and my Younger Sister have received the best personal shields the Speakers of Apocalypse could get, they are not getting through it without some exotic damage and judging by what I am seeing from their metal and ceramic armor I doubt very much that I'll be seeing any. The noise was quite loud and both annoying and pleasant in a strange way I could not quite articulate.

"If none are willing to talk I can just leave and leave this planet to itself." I said in amusement.

Maybe they did not take me seriously because I was not mocking them enough?

"Lower you guns and cease firing!" One man in grey camouflage uniform shouted.

That doesn't count, I need a larger sample size.

Some followed his orders once they noticed their magazines were empty and he needed a few more shouts to get the tank to cease firing as the Helicopter had run out of rockets.

"Finally somebody that speaks, please take me to your leaders." I asked kindly of the elderly man with white hair.

I always wanted to say that, and I noticed that my Younger Sister finally managed to calm down, now that she noticed we are not dead.

If she wants to not get shot at in the future she should really stop acting like it affects her, for bullets smell your fear or complete lack of it, and they love biting into your flesh when they sense weakness. They and the guns they come from won't shoot you if you give them the proper respect you should give to any weapon.

~
AN: For an idea of what the Shuriken Canyon is, look up Macrons or Dust Guns, only instead of using Dust the Eldar use Shurikens and thanks to the space manipulation I kept showing you guys with the backpacks that are larger on the inside and the Eldar bullshit psychic powers they got a slight… upgrade, compared to what is normally used and done with such weapons, such as the actual 'rails' being the barrel and being able to shoot from several locations across the The Shuriken Canyon at the same time.