Chapter 69:

Chapter 69: Options are shaped by one's actions and circumstances.



Our conversation with our guards was most fruitful, as with a few words the two men have given up a treasure trove of information on the world I find myself on, Hexas 3 as the humans call it.

The Eldar don't have a prince or princess on this world yet to name it and as they weren't even controlling this world's webway gate I have decided that even if they did, their name did not apply to it until at the very least the humans have been fully defeated, which if I have anything to say about it, will not happen.

The world of Hexas 3 is the third colony of the Hexan people, a sturdy people I am half sure find their roots in the Old Texas of Earth. Despite that Hexas 3 is their only world as the other two colonies had fallen during the Age of Strife and each time they were forced to board their STL ships and run towards a new world and here on Hexas 3 they've decided they've had enough of that and are fighting for their home.

It also doesn't help that they've been here for one thousand years, and they don't have the transport capacity to take everyone, nor have they made colony ships to take them off world and survive the road as they've decided they'd rather defend this world than move as it is their paradise and safe spot as far as they are concerned.

And so the hexan people have grown from the few millions that settled this world until they've reached billions once again, developed and slowly started to rise up in both technology and industrial might until the eldar came and as is the habit of my new people made everyone's life worse with their stupidity.

"I am ashamed to call myself an Eldar." My cute understudy sang in shame.

She did not show said shame as we walked towards our meeting with this world's military leadership which was encouraging for her career as a diplomat, as we can't have the people we negotiate know we have any shame. They'll start using it against us if they find out we have it after all, and we can't have that.

I was half amused at my Younger Sister and half angry at the stupidity of the local eldar population, and the amusement is very quickly dying out as not even her cute little antics can keep my anger in check. The Eldar obviously have no nobility or really any that were learned in our lore as they obviously didn't know a request for an explanation from an Official meant for them.

They would not have kept me waiting this long if they did.

"Is it because of the behavior of the idiots we share biological ties with or due to you failing to understand the glory that is food as a topic of conversation with humans?" I asked bemused.

Our conversation about ourselves quickly spiraled downwards as the war had taken over much of the life of our two guards, while my Younger Sister's life story only made sense if we revealed the details of her past life and nobody wanted that.

Our past lives are in the past, and it is extremely rude to bring them up by the etiquette of our people, and besides that, the girl is still a child and under my care for now and I have not given her permission to speak of it. I didn't do so because it's simpler for everyone if nobody realizes that we used to be humans once, as it will prevent many uncomfortable questions and topics.

"No, I should have known better than to argue with a veteran diplomat with what must be centuries of experience, I am ashamed of our people's actions." She replied tiredly.

How adorable, she thinks I am centuries old at the very least, when I am not even a century old. I am not going to correct her, it's too fun to do so and if she doesn't realize it then that's one little bit of trickery I've heaped on her without her knowledge.

"That sounds like excellent advice that you should be following, now I want you to think what you would have done in the eldar's place and tell me later after our audience with their leadership." I informed her.

General Alexander opened the door for us

"Thank you general." I thanked the man and my Younger Sister did the same.

The man remained silent but nodded at us. He showed me to the conference where a bulky screen with several faces could be seen. The device itself looked like a laptop of my old life, but bulky and something that you would think is a briefcase as opposed to the small thin things of my last life. Near it were a pair of headphones and a particularly ugly look square camera.

I put the headphones on and addressed the Council of Marshals.

"Greetings esteemed Marshals and Admirals, I am Bessar Agail, diplomat, military officer, and priest of the Pantheon of the Eldar." I introduced myself with my best attempt at cordiality.

It's a bit difficult to be cordial when I have put it upon myself to not learn any of their names, but I really do not want to tangle this world into my schemes. Instead, I wish for it to serve as a stepping stone as we prepare this world and several for joining the Imperium of Man and the idiots I happen to share some genes to go to Anaen, assuming they can be polite.

They still refuse to acknowledge my songs which will cost them dearly once I figure out how.

The individuals on screen introduced themselves one after another and I greeted them back in turn.

"Now that the introductions are out of the way, how fast can we end this conflict and how?" The admiral asked.

I made a show of pretending to think as to how to formulate this question before answering. I've already repeated this conversation in my mind before and all that was left was to have it.

"You have four options, thanks to your speedy reception, two I would assume you will love and two you won't. The first two require you joining up with the only human government we officially recognize, The Imperium of Man, as either a full member or a vassal. They are the current government ruling over Old Earth, or Terra as they call it, the birth world of humanity.

Thanks to the treaty we have recently signed with them, they can settle on our worlds provided they have no Eldar settlement on them, and take temporary stewardship of them until they can either pay for them entirely or we decide we need it, but we'll allow and even help the population to move to a new home peacefully if we do require the world." I informed the older men who are probably of a similar age to me.

At least I think so, I'm pretty sure white hair and that amount of wrinkled is meant to signify being 60 or older, but thanks to humanity' propensity for gene editing they might be in their 80's.

"Why do you claim this world as yours? We've lived here for one thousand years without seeing a single eldar and now you claim it as yours." The only human woman present here asked.

I sighed at her question. I keep forgetting human don't hear the songs we do.

The song of this world was quite clear to any Eldar that was willing to hear it.

'The world has been invaded, come defend them sons of Asuryan, come defend it beloved sons of Isha, teach them fear disciples of Khaine, teach them death crones of Morrai-Heg, hit from the Shadows hunters of Kurnous and Hoec.' The songs kept repeating in my soul.

It was quite annoying and impossible to miss and very hard to ignore to most Eldar, but I have plenty of experience in ignoring things I don't want to see after all.

"Are you familiar with the way how knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that your actions are legal makes one feel?" I asked her, and every single other human in this conference.

"Yes, it makes you more confident and self-assured, but what does this have to do with anything?" The woman responded.

I could see everyone was just as confused as she was. Even my younger sister was confused, which she really shouldn't be.

"We are a psychic race, for us following the law doesn't affect us mentally, but spiritually and as we are a psychic race we can turn that into physical results. We have terraformed this planet and installed our own legal infrastructure and physical infrastructure in our webway gate we came from. As far as the Empire and its laws are concerned this is an Eldar planet, and this grants eldar on it certain abilities, that for the idiotic civilians mean the difference between life and death in your conflict.

You've seen it, I have no doubt, how they act, how they seem to coordinate among themselves with supernatural ability on the tactical level despite having little to no strategic ability." I informed them in my best impression of a disappointed teacher.

"You mean to tell us we haven't been fighting their professional troops?" Another man asked.

They did not argue that the Eldar lacked on the strategic front, which reinforced my opinion that I was correct and they were dealing with civilians.

I pulled out my shuriken pistol from its holster and showed it to them as I placed it near the large camera to the right of the laptop looking thing.

"This is a shuriken pistol, the most basic and yet popular weapon in the empire. It fires the same projectiles as some anti-armor canons and voidship rated weaponry, with the only difference being the speed of the projectile and the psychic skill of the individual that had made it and the one using it. Our soldiers use these and can modulate the strength with which each projectile hit to be anywhere from not being able to penetrate human skin all the way to making a voidship bleed. The fact you are all still alive proves to me that you are dealing with a paramilitary organization at best, and the fact that you can still hold such an effective chain of command and logistics and communication network after years of conflict tells me that you are dealing with armed civilians." I continued and put the pistol back in its holster.

It served its purpose as a show piece.

Most Eldar weaponry are psychic in nature, and with few exceptions such as splinter weapons and a few others, they can be enhanced by someone sufficiently skilled and learned to hit way above what one would think when they look at the weapon. I can't turn this into something that can be used against voidships as I lack the millennia of training and experience to turn a side arm into something that strong, but like most psychic abilities all you need is training and the right frame of mind and reality is yours for the taking.

You can cheat with enough wraithbone and mass, but you don't need it if you know what you're doing and the professional troops of the Empire each have thousands of years to get that good.

The craftworlders don't know this, because they'll gain something approaching a paramilitary organization in their Aspect Shrines when Asurman and his fellow priests finish building them one. I would be disappointed in them, but many in the Empire don't know this either as we've purposefully kept a lot hidden from Slaanesh and that meant keeping most of our actual army hidden from her so that she can't just take over the infrastructure and military hardware that will be left behind to conquer the galaxy.

Asurman truly gave the idiots outside of the Empire more than they deserved. He gave them paths that would keep them safe from the Divine while still being effective, he gave them an actual para-military, as opposed to their heavily armed law enforcement they had before, and he gave them a way to get the idiots to talk with one another by having them share institutions and lesser Divines and possibly have them intercede on each other's behalf. He even gave them the Rhana Dandra and the Asuryata, a story and books of rituals and wisdom meant to give them a chance against Slaanesh and a hostile galaxy and a goal to work towards.

Asurman and his fellow new generation of priests of Asuryan-Khaine gave the Craftworlders a chance at survival in a hostile galaxy, essentially saving the majority of our people that survived the Birth of Slaanesh from extinction, and did all of that despite lacking the institutional knowledge and support of the other priesthoods and it showed. He did more than I could have even dreamed of doing in his position, but he most certainly did not remake something the Imperial Eldar would call a military as he lacked the knowledge and rituals to make that and despite all that still managed to accomplish much.

Not even the Harlequins of Cegorach had a proper military, they've abandoned that role when Hoeth created Cegorach and have instead become something akin to a paramilitary, if on the upper end of the spectrum of such, which is something that can act as a military does but lacks the logistics and institutional know-how that separates professional troops from chaff.

"Are you telling us you can do so? You did call yourself a military officer." The admiral asked.

He was trying to find out if I was lying by making me prove it. It was cute, but fortunately I had an easy and true excuse. I am not a warrior, I am a diplomat and quartermaster, not a weapon's specialist.

"I am a logistics officer, a quartermaster I believe you would call my position, I ensure the troops are fed, the weapons have ammo, the troops have the gear they need and things can move where they are needed and decide where that is, but alongside my duties as a diplomat and priest I do not have the time to properly train in physical fighting. My understudy still hasn't picked her specialization either as we generally speaking learn on the job and the skills I speak of take thousands of years of constant study to develop. Now would you be interested in joining the Imperium of Man or would you rather hear the other two options?"

They took my words into consideration and I could hear them, the clicks of a keyboard. They were talking to each other in a way I could not follow and explicitly kept the general out of it as he awaited behind me. It was quite clever, especially as I lacked the means to intercept their transmissions.

"We would like to hear what would joining the Imperium properly entails first, then hear the other two options." The woman asked of me.

That was fair.

I pulled out the basic treaty of allegiance to the Imperium, as well as the one of vassalage from my bag and gave them to the good general.

I was in luck that I have requested from my siblings that it be written in multiple languages including english to serve as a Rosetta Stone between multiple languages, or I would have had to write it down for them.

The Rosetta Stone was a tax document and it was used as one of the most important linguistic artifacts in history, and now the 'Declaration of Allegiance to the Imperium of Man' would serve the same role.

"Here is a treaty dictated by the upper echelons of the Imperium, these are the basic treaties you can sign as either a full member of the Imperium of Man or a vassal. The terms of both are pretty simple, a complete ban on organized religious organizations, a ban on AI research as defined in it, heavy restrictions on warp-based technologies and what is allowed is to be done with proper supervision, and providing copies of all STC and STC derived technologies to Imperial authorities.

You sign either of those pieces of paper with the intention of following through with membership or vassalage and the legal protection and infrastructure the idiots that invaded your word enjoy is gone and you'll be in for a treat as what follows will be absolutely hilarious. The difference between membership is in the taxes or tribute you have to pay, as vassals pay less but are lower on the priority for sending troops for defense, while full members can receive representation of their interests on Terra and are the first priority of the Imperial Army when it comes to defenses." I informed all in this room.

The local infrastructure wasn't worth much in the grand scheme of things, it allowed civilians to enjoy greater levels of cooperation and cohesion but it was a minor thing, and to most military forces hardly worth noting thanks to their centuries or millennia of experience. But to civilians? It allowed them to execute simple maneuvers and prosecute a campaign despite them not knowing what to do by instinct. Combine that with the fact that Eldar only need some bonesingers to make armor weapons and ammo and even civilians with little to no training can operate at a similar level to the military of an industrial spacefaring civilization.

'It can't be that simple outside of the Empire at the very least?' My cute little understudy asked.

'Says who? We've ruled this galaxy for millions of years and have had plenty of time to put our rituals as the dominant ones in this galaxy. All we need is for proper rituals to be followed and as long as the Empire stands, then what we want will happen and while we are more limited outside of the Empire, granting and revoking access to local infrastructure is well within what we can do." I told her.

That silenced her which was a shame, as I loved when people asked questions and the more they did it, the chance for misunderstandings appearing between us decreased.

It truly was that simple, even if the humans needed a few more clarifications, as it seems their language had diverged a bit from the english I knew but it took little to explain the terms as the general read them out loud to his audience.

It was fine, for they truly seemed interested in their two best options as the others… they aren't exactly things they will like to hear.

"Now that the two options have been explained to us, we would like to hear of the other two." One of the generals asked.

Why can't they just pick the option to join the Imperium already? It's truly their best option.

"The other two options are that you agree to remain independent, and take the idiots' offer to leave or fight to the end. If you agree to leave I will try and convince them to give you time to leave, but please don't pick this one, as it helps nobody but the fools that attacked you, but it is an offer I am obligated to give you.

The last option is to find a noble house or princely status and swear yourselves as their vassals. You would be offered legal protection by their rituals if you swore yourselves to them, and gain limited access to local infrastructure pending a review from the Phoenix Throne and I strongly encourage you to not take any of these two options. Joining the Imperium as far as everyone but the idiots attacking your planet are concerned is the best option for everyone and comes with the least headaches." I revealed and pleaded the leadership of this world.

"I also refuse to take you in as vassals, unless Bessar can make a very good argument as to why I should be doing it, as I am the only one on this world of a princely heritage." My Younger Sister spoke.

If she wasn't truly outraged I would have been quite proud of her outburst, but as it is genuine I am quite disappointed in the fact she thinks I actually want the humans to become her vassals.

I don't want them to do so, but it is an option available to them, and it would solve their issues and grant us some interesting options in the future. A pity she can't see them yet, but she will will thankfully not have to bother with them as from the look of it the humans are most likely to choose the first two. The abandoning their world is not an option most likely, and the less said about swearing allegiance to an eldar the better.

I am pretty sure that face they show us is disgust, but it's been a long time since I've seen it on a human face.

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

"I don't want to rule them, Bessar." I sang to the asshole that wanted to put me in charge of nine billion people.

Those nine billion also just happened to hate the eldar with a passion, thanks to the fact that they've been at war for years.

We left the conference room to allow the local leadership to talk through their options and were now awaiting outside of it for the humans to decide among themselves which of the four options they would take.

"It is an option I must give them, and one they are unlikely to take, also would it be so bad? You wouldn't have to rule over them, only give them a general direction they could go through and establish some laws and that shouldn't be too difficult." He too reasonably explained to me in song

I smelled trickery, but it was of the type meant to help me and not harm me.

Now that I knew the importance of trickery in Eldar socialization I finally understood the feelings that kept popping out as father kept trying to misdirect me around our finances. Father was trying to tell me that we were well but wouldn't tell me how exactly, because I needed to figure out certain things myself. Father was tricking me to my own benefit then as he pretended to be bad with money when we used none.

Bessar is tricking me someway too now, I can feel it but I just can't figure out how.

"Could we please disperse with trickery? At least for the diplomacy part of our duties, as it does not seem that important. I don't want to keep on guessing as to what you want to do and why when dealing with other peoples as we'll probably face enough issues with misunderstandings with other people, without us dealing with it among ourselves." I asked of him.

A complicated mix of feelings emanated from him, but most notable among them was disappointment and uncertainty. They quickly crystallized into resignation and he begun to speak.

"You remember of how we used to be before Malekith still? This trickery and others is part of the ritual meant to stop us from being as the Old Ones meant for us. Inside of the Empire it is safe for us to do so to a limited extent as we are protected by millions of years of Rituals stacked on top of one another, but outside of the Empire of Ten Million Suns the will of the Old Ones reigns supreme still, for their creations still exist to enforce it. Even exodite worlds and craftworlds are not safe for us to disperse with the trickery, as they at best reduce the risk of us becoming as we were.

Cegorach and Khaine and their priesthoods try to keep up the rituals protecting the fools outside the Empire from becoming Small Singing Swords, but us? We're meant to uphold the rituals keeping us as we are and we have no gods to protect us from devolving back into biological war machines for we are of the Damned."

I was suddenly very scared.

"I don't want to be that." I replied meekly.

I remember father's stories of our brutality, cannibalism genocide, death and worse done to ourselves and everyone around us for all eternity as all wished to be free of it until the first Mortal Phoenix King rose and showed us a new path and became the first Child of the Stars reborn from the ashes of War and Misery. I didn't understand them now, but now I knew that Malekith gave us a path forward in which we weren't the Small Singing Sword of the Ancients anymore, but one where we could trick ourselves that we were still the Children of the Stars and have never ceased being so.

"Neither do I, which is why I am hiding so much from you. We are a psychic race apprentice, if our understanding of existence comes from somebody else, then said understanding will define your relationship with reality in that specific circumstance, which is why large parts of our history and knowledge is written down in such an obtuse way that can be interpreted in too many ways. If we know something for certain, we can bring that something closer to reality, even if it is not true, and we are forced to act in the way it demands of us and its why we trick ourselves and each other.

Priests are the ones most at risk, as we know the most and are often times the ones forced to discard Trickery. You're lucky I've taken you as my apprentice priestess so the ritual of Apprenticeship keeps you safe in certain ways and from certain things you learn related to it as long as your apprenticeship to me lasts, but there are limits. The more I explain to you, the greater the risk of you losing the protection of our rituals, so please be very careful when you ask me to explain certain things to you unless you are sure that you can live with the consequences." He continued.

I could feel the discomfort and tiredness he held as he told me what I wished to know and it made me regret asking the question. I would have rather not known than know this.

I nodded at his words and stopped singing and proceeded to ignore the song of this world trying to get us to kill all humans on this world. It was but a whisper as I stood in the shadow of Bessar Agail's presence but it was still noticeable when I was left with nothing to do but think of life.

Could I finish this apprenticeship without asking too many questions? I don't want to become as we were.

"Do not stop asking questions or trying to learn more my apprentice, for as your master I can take on your mistakes and pay for them myself. I haven't failed my apprentices so before, but I suppose it is on me still for I had gotten too used to teaching far too talented apprentices and not just a normal Child of the Stars. It is on the priest to be tricked by both mortal and divine, those of Cegorach especially, and it seems your father tricked me when he gave a child to the Towers of Hoeth promising us a Gifted Child and instead gave us a normal one." He sang softly as he pulled me from my ruminations.

He was tricking me somehow, I knew it, but I decided to allow it and ignore it.

"Could you tell me about them, the White Towers of Hoeth? All I know of them is that they existed before the Phoenix King called them ugly and ordered them burned." I asked.

He took a thinking pose as his silver hand touched his cheek and I could feel his own momentum twist, or better said spin.

"I can't say how they once looked, but the stories say they were great towers of marble and Wraithbone and they were filled with learned men who only accepted the most gifted of the Children of the Stars. Which is why parents and family members would always try to trick us into taking their children in and help them reach their full potential and did so as we tricked them too, for all priests of Hoeth love children and we love to give them a good future, but we need to make sure their parents love them enough to trick us before we do so." My master remembered fondly.

He tried to make me think he did not see them, but it was so obvious a trick only a fool would believe it. He is a master healer of the soul, him having learned in the mythical and greatest centers of knowledge in the Empire in this life or a previous one was only normal.

He never told me that he's only lived two lives after all, only that his first one was that of a human, and Eldar don't care much for time differences or causality, for we tend to think them as the butt end of particularly hilarious jokes.

"How did they turn into Orphanages? We didn't have them before we had the White Towers and Orphanages came from them." I asked

I could feel the amusement roll off him and for a split second I could see the afterimage of an elderly Eldar with white hair and white and blue robes looking kindly at a young child. And then it was gone, and it was only my master with his black hair in his dark robes with their smiling white blade on them that hid behind them a white armor.

It was, he told me, the most formal way we could dress, with the robe representing the god we serve and the armor representing our true allegiance. My multicolored armor represented my family, while his white armor represented Hoeth and his silver hand his father.

"Through trickery, for it is the right of princes to trick the priests and turn us into the butt of their jokes when they try to help their people, and it is our duty to help our people and so we must take the indignity with grace. Princes would send their children with servants, which we allowed normally, but once one Prince sent us all of the orphans in their realm as servants of their gifted children and said they were our problem to house and feed all of them started doing the same shortly after. We created the orphanages as a sort of barracks for the children that were meant to serve the gifted children of princes in theory but were too many to do so efficiently.

Then Isha and her priests barged in because they saw cute children without anyone to guide them and then saw the evil, boorish and greedy priests of Hoeth putting them to work and not loving them as we should, and so she and her priesthood took the orphans and our barracks from us and said they'll handle their education. And it was good they did so, for it all went as we wished, and our hidden schemes to take children without someone that wanted them in their home, and give them a home to live and learn in were most successful." He responded with fondness.

The shadow of a dead God did not appear anymore.

"Just as planned." I responded with their most famous phrase.

I could feel his soul laughing at my response and I relaxed.

"Just as planned indeed my apprentice, and this is the sort of thing you'll need to learn how to do, and do not worry as I'll give you plenty of chances to learn your lessons, even if your apprenticeship will be longer than that of your senior apprentices, but such is fine, for we have plenty of time."

Once he spoke of his previous apprentices my eyes shifted towards his ringed fingers. He was wearing three rings for each apprentice he had, and his words made me wonder about them.

My question died on my lips when General Alexander came out of the room we stood outside of and started to speak.

"Could you please come back into the conference room? The Board of Admirals and the Council of Marshals have come to an agreement." He asked of us as if he wasn't a general and leader of thousands.

Bessar smiled at the man and his eyes twinkled at me and I knew all was good as father used to do the same when he prepared a gift for me.

"Naturally general, we'll come right away." He spoke and I silently followed.

I was still to watch and learn until Bessar would find me some easy task to do, and how hard could my first task be? He did all but say I wasn't talented so it shouldn't be too hard to find some small tasks to help me learn.

We entered the room and it seemed like theyve removed the headphones from the strange portable terminal.

"We have come to an agreement after some deliberations, diplomat Bessar Agail, and we would like some clarifications first before our final decision." Marshal Anderson asked.

"Ask away, I have little I would hide from you on the topics we've discussed before." my Older Brother replied confidently.

"The Imperium of Man, where are their borders? Are they close enough to us to grant us protection?" The man reasonably asked.

"They should still be unifying Sol, your people's home system, so they are quite far and take centuries to reach you, which is more than enough to settle on how to fulfill their demands for membership. If you are worried of another group of Eldar coming in, have no fear as I will make sure these ones will serve as objects of such mockery none will dare, lest they condemn their descendants to a thousand generations of endless mockery and shame." He said and I shuddered.

A thousand generations of shame is more than million years of having yourself and all of your descendants mocked and constantly reminded of it. It would be a kinder fate to end said bloodline than have them endure it.

"Be that as it may, we would rather have a guarantee of protection in the present, as such princess we would like to formally request your protection and patronage." Marshal Anderson asked of me.

I guess this is my 'gift' after all.

He did say it wouldn't be as hard as I expected so with a sigh I gave my answer.

"Very well, I agree to take you under my protection." I answered tiredly.

The change came quickly, the song of this world, no longer asked me to kill all humans, but to punish the blasphemers and criminals and traitors and mock them for their failure and because they have turned against a kind princess.

I also felt the mix of emotions emanated by Bessar, chief among them annoyance, but I did not let them trick me. He can't lie to me, but his emotions are not speech and so they mean nothing.

"I really wished you would have joined the Imperium, but no matter, I can work with this." Were his words.

His tone was soft and his words polite but I felt a shudder run up my back. I was feeling quite sorry for the invaders of my new world now, for my Older Brother now has the familial, legal and holy obligation to make them regret the genocide they are trying to perpetrate against my vassals.