Far from Home
Shadows lay for untold ages in the fetid eternities of The Warp. Blazing lights of Souls glistened throughout , minds like stars glimmering in an infinite Sea of thought and void. Desperate voices crying out in an endless cacophony of silence, every other sound drowned out by the mad laughter of thirsting gods, and the whispers of their souls pressing against all that lived. Well... almost all that lived. A bare fraction of shadow was vaguely darker than the rest these days, a clamor of neverending voices chattering and chittering like the clattering of insectile legs across a fractal of crystalline beauty. Endless repetitions of 'nonononononononononononononononononononononono-' denying and defying anything and everything that dared to touch it. Not that IT noticed or cared.
The creature of ancient times that swam this Sea knew of the Four Essences that ruled in these times. Unlike the before times- which were yet to come, an ancient memory of things that never were and always had been- the sea of today roiled and thrashed, writhing in the storms of the Essences tantrums in vile and sickly ways. The corruption was strong and sickly, bleeding down through layer after layer, even to the deeper, darker parts of the sea that had lain dormant for ages before the Essences had never even been conceived, and would persist long after they were forgotten by themselves. But still, the taint ran deep and was sinking.
The vastness of the taint, it's pervasiveness, it sickened that which dwelt beneath. Worse was the light. Light was foreign to this realm, the glimmering, short-lived flashes of sparkling beauty the only intended sources of illumination. Not now- for the briefest of times, yet still persevering, there was a lighthouse. There had been many gods of light who dwelled in the Sea, but those that had lived long knew not to drag attention to themselves by lighting up the Sea itself. not so much this one, born in the Wake of the Essences domination and shining since. It grew dimmer over time, as all lights do, but it was so much more slowly than normal that still. And then the scar blazed out, and the creature took interest. The barest fraction , of a fraction, of a fraction of itself was released, to watch more closely. This being then sent off a fraction of a fraction of a fraction to truly enter the Upper Sea. It could not enter without damaging the Sea, however.
Thus, a fraction, of a fraction, of a fraction of that was in turn fractioned smaller and smaller, over and over and over until finally a being equal to one of the four was produced. Once again fracturing itself, it sent a tiny flickering spark out of itself, a spark compared to the planetary core that was the Essence equivalent, and even that found itself searing out the bodies it tried to inhabit- dozens of young stillborn by the blaze of power inherent to it. It shattered itself then- if it was like an ocean, it's smaller offshoot fragments were unto grains of sand. Here, a bare few began to survive, while the rest shattered down even farther- grains of dust or individual cells compared to the sand from before.
More lived this time, nearly every single one. The Creature watched, letting it's power seed the Upper Sea with fresh light, and brighter lights. It had been many long ages since it had last performed such an act. And now... now it waited, watching the brightest of it's offshoots as the rest of its self was gathered up into itself once more. So little was lost from it that when it reclaimed all it had given up save that which now was tied to the souls of the Upper Sea, it found there was no difference to its strength. Curling around the darkest of the depths, the kingdom of shadows and darkness deeper and blacker than any mind could imagine... it waited. Most of these new, brighter lights would be food for the four Essences, and their taint. But some... some found their way to the places near that miniscule fragment of space that echoed with denial, refusing all who came near. It pondered on what it would discover, what strength and power the newest ones would wield, and how the sudden increase in numbers would impact the mortals that dwelt beyond the Sea, all the way up in the Real.
And far from any who could hear it, the beast began to whisper, it's own voice echoing like the ticking of a clock as it watched and waited, the world above slowly shifting into ever-more dangerous places and beings. A great doom was coming, an end to some great and terrible thing... but it was eager to see
On a world, in the galaxy, in a space far from the nightmare that birthed the fragment that was tied to it, a child slept, it's soul brighter than it should be. This child would die, driven mad by power and damning her world in her insanity. No mind was designed to handle being an Alpha level Psyker with any level of stability. But though she didn't know it, her purpose remained as potent as ever... the same as countless others. To find what would cause the next big ripple... and shake things up. Perhaps she'd even live long enough to help cause it.
