WARHAMMER 40,000: A Thousand Tiny Suns (40k/Exalted Crossover!)

You remained perfectly, completely still. What feels like eight months pass in a single paralyizing, completely terrifying thought, a thought that consumes your brain from the stem to the base.

Freedom.

What even was freedom? Krieg had once tried to claim freedom, pathetic, hateful freedom. It had burned for it. Burned to the cinder, burned to the bedrock. Horus had wanted freedom, and he had destroyed the galaxy. The Locust Crusaders had wanted freedom, when they had devoured tracts of the East, scraping out vast hectares of green soil and growing things.

...wait, what?

"41?" Kit asked. "Uh, are you all right."

You grabbed his arm, trembling slightly from your head to your toes. Your brain was still whirling around and around and around. Freedom meant you couldn't rely on the God-Emperor, you couldn't rely on fate, you couldn't rely on anything but yourself. And what was 41-22? A stick figure? A tiny little woman, birthed from a creche, with nothing in your heart? Your will was weak - you hadn't even tried to understand or slow down this strange feeling you had for Kit, you had just let it carry away - and now you had freedom? Freedom while the galaxy burned?

Aurora, her face set into broad lines, looked at you. Her finger went to her brow, brushing her tonsure back, fingers hesitating on the tiny studs she had in her forehead. "I think she's undergoing something akin to what Primaris talk about, passing through the Rubicon. A terrible moment of realization."

You breathed in, then closed, and then wrapped your arm around Kit. He slid his arm arm around your shoulder...and held you.

And to be honest?

That was what you needed right then.

While you might be free, you still had your duties. To Kit. To the Imperium. To your Emperor.

Yeah. Yeah. You turned, mask bumping against Kit's shoulder as he squeezed you even more firmly.

"Well, it's not so scary as all that," Amberly said, confidently, her nose lifting into the air. "We comissaris have that kind of freedom all the time anyway."

You glowered at her.

That also helped.

The battle-barge Hammer of Jove continued on its course through the twisting, winding infinity of the Warp. The soft whispering susurrations of the daemons beyond hissed and scrabbled at the Geller Field - and crept against the shuttered windows, crawled through the corridors. The soft chanting of the Chapter Serfs at their prayer filled the air in return, playing one against the other. Your staterooms, when you had been shown them, immediately made you want to dismiss them as preposterous, absurd, there was no way that you could live somewhere so preposterously luxurious.

"It's barely bigger than our tent," Kit said, his voice amused.

"We apologize for the size, but this is a battle-barge, not a rogue trader starship," Aurora said. "This is one of the chambers set aside for the Chapter Serfs - we Astartes live somewhat more..." She hesitated. "Well, we don't exactly need a bed, nor do we need so much space. It leaves room for our gear and other places for our shipboard tasks. Makes the ship more efficient. You two are, of course, invited to join us for breakfast, lunch and dinner - the hours are listed in that small tome there. Get comfortable - we're a few weeks from the last sighting of the eldar craftworld near Ultimar. I believe it is called in the Asyurani tongue...Lyanden."

"R-Right..." you said, nodding. "We'll be fine, don't worry."

Aurora gave you a bow that still felt entirely unearned, then turned and started to pad off. She was shockingly quiet for such a large woman. you looked back from her to the bedroom, where you saw that Kit had sat on the bed. He smiled at you, then in a shimmer of silvery fog, he had transformed into a large, lazy looking tyger. His striped body sprawled atop the bedsheets, and he clearly was taking a lot of pleasure at taking up as much of the bed as he could. Your thumb closed the door behind you and then dimmed the lights with a quiet gesture and prayer. Once it was dimmed, you hesitated, reached up and removed your mask. The tingling feeling of being unmasked around Kit was still strange on your lips.

"I'm...still afraid," you whispered.

Kit purred, a deep thrumming noise. I know, that purr seemed to say.

You walked over, then sat down on the bed beside your lunar mate. Your fingers slid along him, slowly. Then, slightly, you smiled. "But...if...we're free from fate, and only duty can guide us, does that mean that there's no chance of those awful tragedies you always hear about in the mortality plays?" Your finger traced the line of his ear, causing it to twitch. He let out a deep, dismissive yawn. Without even saying a word, he made you smile.

Turns out?

You didn't need the whole bed. Tygers were most excellent cushions and blankets - decadent, sinful, and inefficient as they were.

What is Elsewhere?

A vast space. Dimensionally transcendental. Pinched out of the Wyld, formed to hold the endless panoplies of the Chosen.

This thought flickers through your mind in the dream.

There's so many interesting things about Elsewhere.

Teleportation is impossible.

How does that come into your dream.

Teleportation is impossible.

Hmm, true, save, that it wasn't. The Warp...the Wyld...it could be used. It was a place where distance meant nothing - and as the Warp now spread beneath the poles of reality itself, as if Creation had been dissolved and spread wide, it meant one simply had to dive into the Warp, and take advantage of the meaninglessness of it. A shortcuit.

Elsewhere is carved from the Wyld, taking the exact same advantage: Timeless. Static.

Why was your mind whirling around this?

You were trying to sleep, and your brain was thinking about this. You could feel a paw on your chest through the dream, keeping you pinned, even as you squirm.

What is Elsewhere?

Your eyes opened.

"Elsewhere is to time as the Webway is to the space," you said, your voice soft.

"Mmmhmm?" Kit rumbled, sleeping still. He had shifted into his glorious tygre-man form.

For some reason, that struck you as vitally, vitally important.

Then you fell asleep again.
---
What do you do on your flight?

[ ] Train skills (write in what skills)
[ ] Train attribute (write in what attribuets)
[ ] Awaken evocation in the Lens Lance (making it more powerful)
[ ] Study Charms (write in which skill - but remember, it needs to have dots in it)
[ ] Eschew training for fixing things (walk around the ship doing repairs to bank crafting XP)
[ ] Write In

oh also I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Health: Fine
Anima: Glowing
Willpower: 4/5
Personal Motes: 13/13 | Peripheral Motes: 28/28 (Committed Motes: 5)
Limit: 1/10 (Trigger: Being stymied by indulges around her)
XP: 5 | Solar XP: 6
Major Projects: 0/5
SXP: 19 | GXP: 21 | WXP: 6