I love how blatantly socially awkward Mortarion, scarred immortal transhuman leader of a rebellion that led peasants to kill necromancer-kings, is. It's amazing, I love him.
You pause, briefly taken aback, and then nod. You'd not planned on such a call or response, nor on ending the speech there, but better a quick and clean death than a long and torturous end. So you nod, and you raise your fist to the sky, and when the echoes of the chant have faded you turn and make your way back over to the Legion Master.
I can all but picture him hurriedly scurrying away after heroically resisting his greatest challenge since Necare, public speaking.
finding to your slight consternation that you are taller than Horus at the shoulder and unsure how to handle it,
I also really like Mortarion's unhappiness that his long-lost older brother is shorter than him. This isn't how it should be, dagnabbit!
Is that true? You would like to believe it so, for deeds are a language you find easier to master than any spoken tongue, but some part of you insists that it cannot be that easy. If deeds along could convey intent, then men might have never learned to speak at all.
If the Emperor still ends up getting worshipped, Mortarion should one hundred percent be the patron saint of socially awkward people.
Rare indeed are the men who can look beyond such singular meanings and grasp the importance of the whole. Men like us, my brother."
You snort, shaking your head. "Will you call us lords next? Rulers of the new age, gazing down from our mountain thrones?"
Horus is one hundred percent blatantly laying on the charm offensive, and even Mortarion seems to be somewhat aware of what he's doing…
You smile at that. The expression feels strange and unnatural on your face, but you cannot help it.
…but Horus is just too charismatic, and probably more importantly, nice, with all the compliments he's giving Mortarion. Are these his real feelings? Who knows? I can certainly believe that Horus is confident enough to consider himself one of the few who can see what's really important, especially after being raised with the expectation that he's going to be a great man conquering the galaxy alongside the greatest of all great men, his father.
The Navigator sounds dismissive of such limited ambitions, but you find you have some sympathy. Everything you have learned of the immaterium makes it sound as perilous as Barbaran highlands to traverse, a feat best not attempted without serious thought to risk and reward. If they had all they needed within their little valley, why should they attempt to expand further?
I'm a bit surprised that Mortarion "I hate magic" isn't even more antipathic towards the Warp, but he hasn't had much experience with it yet and in this timeline he's accepted Typhon, his best friend, being a psyker. So instead, we just have some pretty reasonable caution.