Chapter 73:

Chapter 73: Travels are just lessons outside of a classroom.




There is a lot that goes into making a government work I have found in my second life. There's a lot more paperwork, a lot more nonsensical trivialities I have to do and my master has decided to be petty and help with little to none of it.

Instead he has been doing the single most non-consequential things he can get away with doing, such as what he is doing now that I come inform him that the craftworlders are sending their transport towards us. That something being playing with orphans.

'You disapprove of what I do apprentice, I can feel it.' He sang to me as he played a board game with one of the older orphans.

Small orphans watched and cheered either of the two to win the strange game from the sides.

I still don't know how he can know that. I have learned how to hide my own emotions and he can't tell what I feel most of the time, but he can tell me my own opinion on a given topic before I even articulate it myself. I smell Nonsense, something I have learned to sense because the man reeks of it and I can sometimes feel it from my subjects, even the non-psychic ones.

I should probably not doubt my Bessar's words that nonsense is an actual phenomenon, and not just a way to categorize things, but despite his great knowledge his actions leave much to be desired.

'I do, nothing you do to try and make them forget will erase the fact that you've stripped individuals of all muscles and cartilage except that of their spines and organs and left them to scream to death, or the fact that you can dissolve Wraithbone by shouting at it despite the material being able to take artillery strikes and be fine. I do not know why you keep insisting on working on your image.' I sang back.

There was no other reason for him to do this, for while he has done little to help me in arranging the government of this world, beyond providing a blueprint to how to get what he called a 'healthy' society, the few things he did always served a purpose of enhancing mine or incidentally his image in some way or form, from talking on the news, explaining the humans' situation or even helping rebuild homes or infrastructure with the saying that 'This is expected of the Stewards of the Galaxy'. Now he's trying something similar as nothing I can think of fits his behavior.

The incident in question happened when certain individuals decided that now that the danger had passed they no longer needed the psykers to live. And so a group of civilian bureaucrats and soldiers went to kill them all while they thought neither of us were looking. Bessar Agail was watching and left the eight individuals that tried to kill twenty psychic children and the surviving six adults and turned them into a piece of screaming abstract art that took hours to die as he ripped most muscle and skin and bone from the offenders for daring to try and kill children in his pressence.

I could feel amusement roll off him in waves thicker than water. He was laughing at me.

'I care little for my own image on this world, especially as I will never set foot on it again if I can help it. Me being here does not serve any greater purpose beside honoring my legacy, for I was raised in an orphanage in this life, and as part of the rituals I have taken to maintain to honor the legacy of the Laughing Blade who founded it I have decided to help give the children in them an easier time. I also enjoy doing this because its fun and I love children and I need all the joy I can in my life because my life is miserable and insanity inducing.' He replied as he made his final move and lost the game.

Bessar Agail cared not for his loss, for he threw the match like every time he ever lost. He called it building trust and likability, as if loss could create either normally, and yet despite everything I knew of how things should work it did.

"I see you won young man, congratulations! Unfortunately I have to leave and it is doubtful I will ever see any of you again, so please do take care of yourselves and you young man take care of your younger siblings, this is the task I entrust you with." He said as he ruffled the hair of the 17 years old boy.

In my past life that age would have made him an adult, but here he had one more year of childhood before being thrown out into society.

I cared not for that, for his words hurt me slightly.

'Am I truly so unpleasant to be around?' I asked him pretending not to be hurt.

I know I failed, for whatever means he has to divine my emotional state can beat my best attempts at hiding it but it did not hurt to get into the habit.

His amusement did not abate. He tried to rise, but the youngest children tried to stop him and he gently tried to keep him there with their little hands.

'No, teaching is a pleasure and while you are more difficult than my other apprentices, finding ways to teach you is fun and mentally engaging. The issue is that I have siblings, friends, wives, children and concubines that I know care for me and wish me well, and instead of being near them and loving them as they love me I am forced to travel the stars where danger awaits me. I would rather find a home and fortify it until I am safe, but because the divine also want me to do it I cannot and so I am forced to be sleep deprived, in danger and away from most of my family.' He replied much to my relief.

My master and older brother is insane but the last thing I want is to make the lives of those around me miserable and for all his faults my brother means me well. I can commiserate with being far away from your family and those that love you.

"That's enough children, I have to go and it would not do to be late, sister could you please help me?" He asked of me.

I obliged with a smile and eventually managed to get the orphans off him.

A question kept nagging me and despite all of my instincts telling me I would not like the answer to it I decided to ask it.

'Why do we act against what the Divine wish of us? Are we not priests?" I asked.

It was an important question, for all I learned in both my lives told me that priests serve the Divine, not act against their intentions for us.

We left the children behind as Bessar Agail thought of his response and went our of the orphanage and into the black armored car awaiting us outside. My brother opened me the door and I went in and he followed.

"That is supposed to be your third lesson, the second being the nature of the old ones which I did give you. I was hoping to wait for more appropriate circumstances but your curiosity works.' He sang back resigned.

My second lesson was far less traumatic than the first by dint of me asking about it, much to his resignation which confused me, but back then I decided not to press it, but now I did.

"Is it truly necessary to put me in the 'right way of thinking' before engaging with my lesson?" I asked vocally as I spoke in the common Eldar language.

Around us the cityscape slowly gave way to the open field and soon it will take us to the spaceport constructed by the Craftworlders so that they could take us to their home with all the appropriate ceremony.

I have arranged for the Hexan councils to take power, separating the civilian side from the military part. It was annoying to navigate it but both civilians and the military seemed happy with it so I hid the fact that I would have rather had a simple and direct government as opposed to the semi-democratic mess everyone insists is 'healthy'.

"Do you know how the program you used to check the status of the economy of your world works? The way it gathers information, the way it sorts it, the way the people gathering the information receive it, send it, check it and more, the way it is powered, the way it is connected to other similar devices and more works?" He asked.

I again did not see the connection as in all other lessons, but just like before I knew there was one.

"I know part of it and that it requires a lot of infrastructure to operate." I replied simply.

It was the truth, I know part of all that goes into making my reports, but I could not tell you everything works or even why they are important.

"Yes, no individual can know all of the things that go into a sufficiently complex system, but part of the infrastructure that gives you the economic reports also makes the average hexan soldier what they are. Our society is based on psychic infrastructure, our rituals are the infrastructure and the end result of those rituals our technology. We, the Older and Younger Brothers of the Speakers of Apocalypse are the result or tens of millions of years of refinement and in-built infrastructure and the only reason we survived so long as a concept is the comparatively small infrastructure requirements in our creation and maintenance." He explained as I recalled his lesson on rituals.

There are three type of rituals a priest could embark: Personal Rituals, Mortal Ritual and Divine Rituals.

Personal Rituals are ways to make yourself greater than you used to be or ask something of yourself through only your own work and energy. The example Bessar used when explaining it to me was Morning Rituals in my past life. I would wake up, get kissed by my husband, make breakfast and drink caff, clean myself then head to work. This was the ritual I did each morning to demand out of my aging body one more day of work. Now that I am a part of a psychic race similar rituals have vastly more obvious and applicable results, such as increasing my sensitivity to specific psychic stimuli, increasing my bodily strength or reaction times and more.

Divine Rituals are what I knew of from stories in my past life, and it is where you provide something to the Divine and they will provide something back. It is a transaction of a sort, only that you receive what you paid for, not what you wanted or tried to negotiate for.

It is the Mortal Rituals that were the most confusing, for they worked like Personal Rituals but instead of demanding it from yourself, you demanded it from others and while I can understand what that means I have no idea how to do it.

"So we are the cheapest to make as far as Divine Rituals go? And the reason you want to me to be in a certain state of mind is because it would affect the end result of my forging into a Younger Sister?" I asked.

It made sense, introduce certain stimuli and materials, and then receive something in return. If I could figure out what sort of rituals would make soldiers could I apply it to humans so that they are less disappointing?

I knew that my old species weren't as advanced as my current one, but the contrast was quite stark. Bessar did not care, because he told me they used to be greater once and this fall is just a temporary fall before they can be brought back, but I wished to speed up the process.

I could feel the feeling of pride and concern coming from him.

"Partially yes, but not quite what you seem to be thinking. Our psychic abilities are powerful, but we restrain them to help us develop in certain ways. Even the most untrained Eldar could if they decided to push themselves or perhaps end their lives destroy the surface of this world faster than we could notice it. We don't because we hone our abilities into what I have taken to calling 'forging potential' and we make ourselves into what we wish to be. Our method would not work on humans, not until they are Adopted at least as they have their own way of improving and changing themselves." He replied.

"How do Humans advance?"

I should probably know it since I used to be one, but all I could think of was competition but that destroyed as much as it made so that can't be it. I could also feel his approval at both my question and my train of thought.

"They Advance through Play. All creatures born of Terra draw their intelligence and form from Play, with humans learning to play the games with the greatest potential and thus becoming the dominant species. And before you ask the question all humans probably ask when they hear it, it is different from competition, because to play with someone, all those involved must inherently agree to rules that can be broken and that there is a sort of amiable relationship between those involved if the games continue long-term.

Competition can have that but it does not inherently have it. You can sabotage people, cause them to hate you, steal their work and more and it would not change your relationship with the others, while doing this while Playing would and the more humans involve themselves in games that help them, the greater they become and the more they grow from them."

I considered his words and they made absolutely no sense and so I filed them down for later if they ever become relevant and I can test them. I know better than to ignore it, but until I can check for my sense and make sense out of them I have no choice but take them at face value.

"Also we are not technically the cheapest to make, instead we are the ones that require the least existing infrastructure to grow and develop, because as far as resources go we are very inefficient, especially now that we can't be farseers. The cheapest in terms of actual resources used to be the Loremasters as all one needed was to drop a very gifted child into a White Tower and just by them being there, learning and being a part of the tower's constantly running rituals they would become one of the most intellectually capable individuals in the Empire. We on the other hand require resources and to make a lot of rituals, but our rituals require little supporting infrastructure.

All we really need is another one of our kind that exists to guide us, or a barracks dedicated to Hoeth specifically and eventually Older Brothers and Sisters and our Younger Siblings will come out and it's up to the others to slowly forge them into something worthwhile which takes the personal attention of each other which is something very precious and difficult to manage as we are a part of the true priesthood and us interacting directly is not done lightly or easily thanks to our Narrative Momentum clashing and almost always resulting in one of us becoming subordinate to the other or dead unless special measures are taken." He continued enthusiastically.

He liked teaching others, this he confirmed to be and others that knew him. I even saw the file the Hexan Intelligence Service compiled on him which stated that to get him into a good mood one needs to to allow him the chance to teach others. I started to suspect it wasn't just the fact he liked it but there was something more about it and I just couldn't see it.

The knowledge of the old priests not liking to interact with one another was something mother told me of, but it was good to have some context as to why the Oldest Priests of the Pantheon would kill each other on sight in the stories.

"Have I sabotaged myself then?" I asked tiredly.

I did not wish to fail, for it bring shame on myself and my own expectation of my self and of that of everyone that believes in me. I could feel his amusement cease as I thought that.

Just how is he doing that?

"No, the lessons required to be a junior priestess of Hoeth amount to five important lessons you should know and that I can reveal to you in less than 24 hours, a particularly impressive feat or deal accomplished with you as a part of it and you creating an organization or base for me to use as a safe house and place to recover in. You already have two out of the five lessons and are in the process of getting the third lesson and we are on our way to have you complete the organizational requirements and the deal. The only way you could have sabotaged your status as a Junior Priestess was running away from it and saying you no longer want to be one or dying.

The only thing you did is turn you from my attempt at creating a masterpiece tuned specifically towards detecting and being wary of Divinely related Nonsense, to something approaching 'factory' standards which is not your fault. All fault with the results of a students' studies lays solely on the teacher as long as the student is at the very least trying to learn which you do." He answered softly.

"How does this relate to the Divine and us serving them?" I asked

"The part about you failing does not, it was you spiraling into a bad place, the part about rituals is quite important, for as we perform rituals on the Divine, so do the Divines perform rituals on us for we came from them and them from us."

I blushed at his word as I did not mean to derail the lesson. Something nagged into my mind. We came from the Divine and the Divine came from us and children come from their parents and our parents are the Old Ones.

My dawning realization was met with mirth by my master.

"I see you understand what I was going for, care to share it?" He said giving me a smile that he has told me could scare daemons.

It was far too pure for that, but perhaps daemons are disturbed by pure things?

"The rituals of the Old Ones continue affecting the Divines, if we act as they wish of us the Old Ones get whatever they want and we can't have that." I answered.

He laughed at my answer for a bit before answering. I could feel our driver grow restless at it but I sent him a short assurance that all is fine and that Bessar is just amused.

The driver calmed down and informed me we are five minutes away from the Spaceport.

"A nine out of ten answer my apprentice, care to think how you can get the ten?"

I thought about it but could only come up empty.

"It's probably what the Old Ones want but I don't know enough about them to say." I answered.

"Nine point five, the answer is that the Old Ones are our parents, and what they want of us is to grow up. The Old Ones are the Amalgam of entire species becoming as One, and they wish of us to drop our Exile of them from our home for being Disappointing parents by growing up and learning to look past personal grievances. Adulthood would require our Gods slowly ever so slowly merging into one and maturing as they find themselves interlocking into the pieces that would turn them into a single sword."

"Wait doesn't that mean that the Old Ones caused the New Divine to be born? They want our Divines to become one and she will eat them all if she could." I asked.

He told me the New Divine is the result of enemy actions but this sounds like something the Old Ones would want that we are trying to sabotage.

I could feel his amusement and I realized I was missing something.

"No, because it does not follow the ritual for such things. The Divines must slowly merge as if pieces of the same device being assembled, not merely be eaten by a new and better one. It is how we know they aren't responsible for it, they would rather this galaxy not shatter, and shatter it would, for our Divines dying in a way that breaks the rituals of the Old Ones, would stop the rituals keeping this galaxy in one piece from the destructive reality of the War in Heaven which shattered reality and the patchwork keeping it in place requires their rituals to be up.

This is why we act in the Divine's interests and not according to their wishes. What they unconsciously wish is to be made whole, but what they consciously want is to continue enjoy their life and family forever and we need to ensure that the Singing Swords of the Ancients continue tricking each other that they are the Children of the Stars until it becomes nothing but the truth." He explained calmly, but I could almost hear the hidden smirk.

"Couldn't we have fixed that?" I asked panicked.

I did not want the entire galaxy to blow up! Even Bessar stopped radiating amusement and turned very serious.

"We could, but we need the dead man's switch to prevent idiots from killing us off, because we are Eldar, we don't need to be alive to make you regret crossing us and having local reality shatter at our final and complete death is an excellent way to avoid it or at the very least narrow down who is attempting it. You shouldn't worry about it, it is one of many failsafes we've learned to make in our millions of years of existence and we have some to see if someone from inside the galaxy is trying, or if they are from this reality or another or form Unreality and Boredom and Slaanesh triggered the failsafes meant to show us the threat comes from Unreality. All space faring species that can survive for millions of years learn ways to make themselves not worth destroying, or make it so costly even if someone can do it they don't bother with it and we are no different.

Humanity has gone through something similar called Mutually Assured Destruction early in their development where power blocks would create a situation that if one acted in a way that would kill the other, it would start a cascade that would destroy both of them and they did it because it works remarkably well so please relax because things are still within expectations and we are far from needing to pursue any deadmen's switches." He continued seriously.

I felt mischief and I smiled.

"Not that it would help, for Eldar care not if we are alive or dead." I replied.

Eldar don't stay dead when we die, dead men's switches are to kill and keep somebody else dead, not us. The rest of the galaxy would die, but we would survive and recover and do so faster than everyone else, just like in the past.

His face morphed from the kind teacher into a grin just as monstrous as Cegorach's.

"I am very proud of you my sister, for you learn well. I originally planned to teach you your third lesson on Anaen, for the Craftworld would have served as a more appropriate environment, but I am glad to see that your mind is developing appropriately." My master replied with more kindness than a halfway demonic smile should ever posses.

The car stopped at his words too and we prepared to leave this word and head for Anaen, for outside our transport awaited us.

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

My Younger Sister continues to Vex me greatly, for while she learns slowly, she does learn and unlike all of my other apprentices and students she knows the greatest amount of what happens behind the curtains.

None of my apprentices knows exactly what is going on, they don't even have a way to know, for what I taught them is either an art or a way to think and not the raw knowledge to make sense of what is going on in the empire. Not even my second apprentice knows and I have taught him to be a priest of Khaine and hopefully become a true priest of Khaine as he starts his own holy order and traditions.

This is because knowledge is power, and power is dangerous and the more we know the easier it is to damn ourselves to a fate worse than death as it takes a great deal of caution and protection to prevent ourselves from suffering from the consequences of our actions and as the Damned Priests of a Dead God we don't have the protection and the instinctive caution we need is something we are often times forced to go without.

I have tried to instill it into Laciena Fiora but she has decided that she is not interested in it, which made me thankful that I have decided to let her be a Younger Sister only. We don't need this unrestrained curiosity among the ranks of the Older Brothers and Sisters. We're playing a dangerous game already, we don't need to increase the risk for no reason.

'Does our priesthood have any specific plans for Anaen? I can't say why I am feeling it, but there's something wrong with the way the Craftworlders act.' My sister interrupted my musings.

So even the child can notice it, even if she can't say exactly what is going on.

We were on the bridge looking over Commodore Eadon handling his crew's trip towards their home. We were hours away by ship which was quite the distance so we will sit here for a few hours to check on how the craftworlders perform. I wished to verify for myself if the line of inquiry Ulthuan gave us was correct and now that even my sister notices something is wrong it forces me to acknowledge that yes, the Craftworlders song-logic suffers from some form of malady.

'Yes to both questions, and it relates to your third lesson. A man called Ulthuan, which is a Man among Men, told us of a secret only a select few outside of the Empire knows and that we are always watched by something and that something is the Divine. This lead us to realizing that those outside of the Empire are only partially protected by our rituals and suffer partially under the Nonsense of the Old Ones and because by the standards of the Old Ones we are children, the Craftworlders suffer from Partial Spiritual Neoteny." I answered.

I could taste her confusion, it seems she hasn't heard of the term before and so I answered her questions before she placed it.

"Neoteny appears when an organism has a delayed or nonexistent development in the characteristics that separate adulthood from childhood. As an example imagine if a lizard were to develop a red crest in adulthood, then a lizard suffering from Neoteny would not develop said crest. The craftworlders are the same, as their souls have an arrested development somewhere that causes them to act erratically and strange." I continued.

"Strange how?" She asked innocently.

"Do you remember my explanation on the shuriken pistols I gave to the Twin Military Councils before they were called as such and the Device I gave you to teleporting to this ship?" I asked her.

"Yes, the shuriken weaponry operates solely by psychic apparatus, so our military has special training related to turning our warriors capable of enhancing the strength of their shots up to even voidship levels, while you told me that the device is something most craftworlds have a version of for their civilians even if some have restriction on it." She replied innocently.

In front of us the craftworlders continue their strange behaviors of actually vocalizing issues and trying to form agreements on specific courses of actions.

We are a psychic race and they are trained voidship crew from a void-bound culture. They shouldn't need to do it, and as a matter of fact should be slightly uncomfortable with it if they were trying to do so to make us feel comfortable. Instead I could feel that this strange behavior was normal for them, as they weren't even thinking about it, they were just doing what came naturally to not think about our presence here.

"Indeed, the shuriken enhancement is something many individuals learn how to do by themselves easily enough even if they don't go to be a part of a military organization or even a para-military organization, while the teleporter itself is a highly restricted military technology that few know exists, and the craftworlders have the teleporter as a civilian technology and the knowledge you can enhance shuriken weaponry purely by training your psychic abilities in a certain way is not something they possess." I explained.

Using your psychic abilities to enhance the functionality of equipment that relies solely on psychic phenomena to function is common sense for anyone with even the most basic understanding of how our technology works while making temporary short range portals by abusing the connection between multiple closely linked Webway gates is not.

I myself do not have the authorization to teach others to make it or even know how to make it. I can only use it and allow others limited usage as part of military or diplomatic missions and somehow the craftworlders just… have it… and as a civilian technology at that. And they developed it by themselves too, as that's the only way the Armada wouldn't have just blasted them from the galaxy for stealing restricted military technology. No, the morons just can't figure out basic military technology many can just figure out by themselves and yet have the capability of recreating restricted military technology few know is even possible in theory.

Something is deeply wrong with the craftworlders and the way they think and it took Ulthuan to make us realize that the fools are living under the hybrid rituals of both ourselves and the Old Ones and this mixing of Nonsense lead to them developing strangely and not responding to stimuli as they should. I'll have to check with my peers to see if the Titan's studies as to what the craftworlders have done to themselves is true but I have a feeling it is correct.

"Aren't Khaine and Cegorach supposed to uphold the rituals keeping our people from beyond the Borders from being affected? Also can't you cure them of it" She asked.

She was also doing her best not to think about me handing her a restricted piece of military technology.

Also it explains why Cegorach's forces were so limited in the stories I read in my past life. The Harlequins weren't allowed to become a military as Cegorach was not Asuryan, Khaine, Hoec or Hoeth and only they are allowed to have militant holy orders. Cegorach can't give his troops military secrets that the rest of our people do not possess and as the people of Commoragh represent the closest thing to continuity our people had in that timeline, Cegorach was restricted to what he could give his troupes as the Divine can't go against Divine Mandates and the Craftworlders were not developing as they should and the Commorites were not even bothering with psychic tech while the Exodites couldn't even be bothered to research new ways to kill, and so the Black Council of the Black Library were forced to improvise as to what they could equip and train their para-military with.

They made it work, but it doesn't change the fact that they should have access to a lot more than what they did have.

"They should, but I am worried that the Old Ones are acting up and purposefully sabotaging it by making it so that our rituals and theirs mix as opposed to overriding one another as happens in the Empire where we've managed to sequester an area of space where it is our rituals that dominate and not theirs. If our theory is correct, then Ulthuan managed to save our species multiple times over with just a few words and even if it's false we still managed to figure out another piece of the puzzle that makes craftworlders so strange.

As for healing them of it? I don't know, neoteny is not something I had a chance to study but I'll see what, if anything, I can do." I replied.

It was true, I have no clue how you could even give yourself and your descendants spiritual neoteny as I focused on curing the wounds caused by Chaos and excess emotional trauma, not developmental effects and I don't even know what to look for to say for sure that this is what they are suffering from. But regardless of all of that I'll try and see if I can't help them, for it is my duty as a priest to help my people.

'What is it that they have not developed? Is it also how you keep knowing what I think despite not reading my mind or emotions?' She asked.

Ah, so she finally got the courage to ask it, how cute.

'All children of the Old Ones and even some of the species they nurtured as servant have access to our own psychic field that connects us to each other. We call ours The Song of Our People, albeit I heard of some that call it the Whisper, the Krorks called theirs War Field and the orks the Whaagh Field and unlike all other species with one we restrict access to it to adults as it reduces individuality. Our theory is that the Craftworlders have done something to themselves either intentionally or not to prevent their souls from developing the appropriate means to consciously detect it and have then proceeded to forget about it.' I explained.

It is the only way to explain how craftworlders were not aware of it before Yvraine and Ynnead came around and reminded them of it. There were people that should have lived through it to remember it and others that were born shortly after that should remember it, and yet they did not and the 'Whisper' came as a surprise to everyone.

If this is true then the Old One's meddling might have even reached behind our borders undetected which is a problem as we can't check it, for it is taboo to speak of it. Everyone knows it is there, but to admit it exists to anyone but one's spouse or children is just not done by anyone but the priests.

I could feel her annoyance singing to me.

'When was I going to be told of it?' She asked indignantly.

'If you hadn't met me then never. You would figure it out it exists at adulthood then you would be tricked into thinking you are special and the only one that can feel it while everyone else feels the same way and the moment you learn otherwise is a humbling experience.' I replied in amusement.

She huffed but did not speak or sing of it further.

Learning that you are not special compared to everyone else in your species is a humbling moment for most Eldar and it is something most individuals should experience, but it was one that had been denied to me, for I was told exactly what I am to face and know and what it would cost me.

My younger sister is too curious to enjoy humbling experiences but it is fine, she won't be in a situation where her curiosity will harm her much as all she needs is provide hidden support to slave liberators, and while liberating slaves is never safe or easy, it does not lend itself to the dangers that interests priests of the Pantheon.

A particularly vile song was approaching us as it sang in discordance to the fear of Anaen.

"I kindly suggest you that you shoot the thing before it shoots us, or worse, tries to actually talk to us." I informed our hosts.

They were slow to react to my words as a pleasure cruiser of the Vermin that loved to live in the Trash of Chaos came from a nearby tunnel and almost collided with the ship. It was an ugly pink looking thing with too much alien skin covering it.

The crew looked to their commodore for guidance before the man sighed and spoke the words that would seal their fate.

"The ship to land the killing blow on the idiots gets to be the last on the sleep rotation." He drawled and the Song of Caution and Fear of Anaen was replaced with the Murder-Logic of Khaine.

The words were not something one would expect a military officer to say, but the Commodore might as well have whipped his fleet's crews for the Vermin ship died in five heartbeats as the small fleet stopped acting like children and started acting like the bloodthirsty voidfarers all Eldar are to one extent or another.

"The 'Dreams of Endless Laments' got the kill." He informed the fleet and us, much to said ship's cheers.

The ship also happened to not be his ship, despite his ship being the last to hit the pleasure cruiser technically, even if the hit did not touch anything that would have caused it to explode.

'The man is fair too.' I thought with interest.

'Excuse me Commodore, but your actions reminded me of someone I have met before, would you happen to know a man called Diseth Aisse?' I sang to the man.

Perhaps he is of the same apprenticeship line that made Diseth Aisse? If so the man is quite the rare find.

'I do holy one, he is my Master from when I was a part of the Fellowships of Fire. The seers saw I was much more suited for void warfare and so I was transferred to the Fellowships of the Void.' He explained with barely hidden fear much to my amusement.

How cute, Lammor got me a present. It won't save him from his beating but it will make me be more generous to Anaen which I assume is what he meant to happen. I thanked the man for letting me know and went back to waiting for time to pass by thinking about someone's impending demise. I don't know who that someone was, but it was fun thinking about how they are going to die.

The hours passed in silence as I looked on the view port.

"We will be coming out of the Webway in a few minutes." The Commodore informed us.

He didn't have to, because I knew better than his ship how and where we were but it is fine, for politeness will get one far.

"I thank you for letting us know Commodore, please prepare for a fight as you exit it, as I can hear some weird shouts." I informed him.

His fleet grew more cautious as my words were transmitted across, but the Murder-Logic of Khaine was absent. Apparently a warning from a priest is less bloodlust inducing than the chance for nappies which is fair.

I'd kill for a good night's sleep too.

'What are you hearing?' My sister sang cautiously.

'Orks.' I informed her.

We exited the Webway and we saw that I was correct, for Anaen was at war and fighting against an Orkish Whaagh.

'This will be hilarious.' I sang to her as I prepared for a good show.

My sister did not seem to agree, for she was a child still and children can't appreciate spontaneous acts of violence like most adults can and moved closer to me seeking protection. I let her do it, for she was a child, and children are to do as they must.

We came up straight on top the meanest looking ship in the orkish fleet, which meant it was the flagship of the Warboss.

"Open fire on the ugliest ship!" The Commodore ordered.

The Murder-logic that followed was diffuse compared to that which was present when the craftworlders were told to kill to be the first to sleep, but it quickly reached the same pitch then went even higher as the Commodore and his fleet were in torpedo range and all five cruiser ships launched a torpedo salvo at the ship that didn't even have time to notice them.

The ship died in a single salvo and with it and the warboss on it the Whaagh field shattered in a hundred pieces as the warboss died and Anaen's defenders redoubled their efforts to cleanse the void of the greenskins.

I wished them luck, for none of us have succeeded in making it stick in millions of years and the Greenskins are always back.