Tine nodded. "Of course we can teach them safely," she said, her voice firm, and growing firmer by the moment. "We have two psykers here. Of course...if we count Aria..." Her hand dropped to the hilt of her sword, caressing her - though Aria had little to say at the moment. The entombed Farseer's spirit, without the vitality of a body to draw upon, had little to say when her energies were lacking and low. "...that technically counts as three. And she does have more experience being a psyker than we'd could amass in a hundred lifetimes."
Ryia nodded, relaxing fractionally, while Em chuckled. "Well, I trust you two. No matter what talent Zeph has, they're my child and I love them." He poured some sugar into his mourning tea, then yelped as both of his wives pressed to either side of him and began to kiss his head and cheeks. The chair creaked, its spindly noble form not made for the weight of two women, one of which was nearly eighty kilos, and a man who definitely
was ninety. As it groaned, Em tried to warn them.
Instead, the three ended up upon the ground, time enough for June to pause at the doorway on her way to her sword practice drills, look in at them, sigh as if she was the mother, shake her head, and walk on.
***
The tube was alone in the sub-section of the cargo-decks of the
Argent Scourge, placed there by a wheeled cart and left by nervous members of the Elysian 101st. It was now being eyed by its guards with the same nervous trepidation that they always showed it.
"So, what do you think it is?" Corporal Tensor Jennet asked, quietly, to her partner for the past few months.
"Don't know, don't care," Corporal Zhanti Quinn responded, adjusting the strap on her lascarbine infinitesimally, trying to get it to lay just a
tiny bit more comfortably. The faint clack of wood stock on metal made the empty sub-bay echo ominously, and both women exchanged nervous looks again. Then, despite themselves, they looked back at...the tube. It was, from the outside, a classic Imperial model stasis chamber, with the carved bass relief and the reliquary seals. But there was something about it that simply radiated dread. Maybe it was the completely opaque black glass that was set into the normal face viewing. Maybe it was the dull, faint humming that perpetually emerged from it. Maybe it was the whipsy tendrils of purest cold that crept out from the edges of the door, in defiance of technoarcana that was at least nominally understood. Stasis fields were neither cold nor hot - they were static, unmoving
moments in time.
Which meant, either, that the field was decaying...
Or...
"Seriously, you don't care?" Jen whispered to her partner.
"I'm not paid to care!" Quinn hissed back. "I wish I was back with 1st company."
Jen snorted. "Why, so you can fail to make first again?"
Quinn grumbled under her breath. "Would have made it if that little bitch didn't
bite me halfway through the time trials."
"As the Colonel said, it did work, didn't it?"
"She
bit me!" Quinn thrust out an arm, showing the still healing bruise on her arm.
"It didn't even break skin!"
"I don't care if it-"
Both of them shut up as the door to the sub-bay opened and the only person on the ship other than the Captain and his ladies allowed to enter without authorization stepped in. The red-robes of Enginseer Phi rustled along the ground as he swept towards the tube, paying neither of the Elysians any mind. He instead focused entirely on the tube, thus irrevocably ruining their guard shift. After all, it wasn't like they could bitch about the rations with a cogboy in the room.
Then again...maybe they could have.
***
"Phi says his latest studies are-"
"Wait, he's a
guy?" Ryia asked, cutting Tine off as the bridge bustled with the preperations to drop from the warp into the Serpent's Cradle. Tine and Em both looked at her and Ryia flushed, her hands sliding into her pockets. "I just...he...didn't..." She trailed off, while Tine snorted, then punched her sister in the shoulder. Ryia stuck her tongue out at her, and the two laughed, quietly, as Em put his palm to the wall of the bridge. He could feel the rustling of the warp against the geller field that enfolded his hull, and knew that they were close to slipping from the Emyprian, purely from the vibration of it. He gave a subtle nod to himself, while Tine harrumphed.
"Anyway...Phi says his latest studies are inconclusive - at the end of the day, he's done every scrying art that he can think of, every checksum ritual, every possible poke and prod, and the end result?" She shook her head. "We won't know what's in the tube until we just...open it."
"Ever heard the story of Kirkimire and the Stasis Box?" Ryia muttered.
"No," Tine said, her brow furrowing.
"A pirate-explorer, Jemmen Kirkmire found an old stasis tube. Popped it open to get his treasure - but it had been closed on a vortex torpedo one second from detonation," Ryia said.
"What a
lovely story..." Tine grumbled, while Em shook his head.
"That's why we've waited this long," he said. "But...mysteries...might be served to waiting until we're on a planet, yes?"
The ship shuddered, groaned, and the dislocating swirl of sensations and emotions that came from dropping from the Warp to realspace hit each of them. Em fought down the nausea with long practice, but at least one mid who had less time in the void than he wasn't so lucky. As the lecturn was hastily cleaned, the vista-plates were lowered, and the twin gemstones of the Serpent's Cradles primay stars both flared to life through the bridge, casting harsh shadows and giving Em's features a cool, distant cast to them.
"Here we are..." he said. From the port and starboard windows, the mainsails of their fellow ships began to unfurl, and the fleet started to move towards the agreed upon meeting point in the heart of the system.
"Yeah," Tine said. "Aria has told me about other Farseers...she says that we need to be on our guard. Nothing makes a Farseer more cautious than another Farseer in near proximity. Their visions grow more and more complex as the future-sight they have has to interact with and respond to the future-sight of the other. Combine this with us
mon'keigh getting in the way, and they're going to be...tense." She bit her lip. "We need to be on our guard: Farseer Serredon and Farseer Caille may be our most dangerous negotiations yet."
Ryia and Em both nodded, grimly.
They were ready to face these wily Eldar psykers.
***
On the tallest spire of the
Fate's End, in a webway cocoon of glittering crystal and shimmering white sleekness, Farseer Serredon glared at the shimmering, translucent images of the
Mon'Keigh ships. He touched a red bead of crystal on the wall next to him, the subtle gesture and his own intent carrying the message through the twelve kilometers of
Fate's End and to the chambers of his opposite. His lips curled down.
The arrival of Farseer Caille took significantly less time than he had expected...
...but she came the same way that he had dreaded.
CRASH!
"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry, oh, uh, that wing...goes back on right? Oh...uh..." Callie backed into the room, her glasses knocked entirely askew, her robes rumpled as if she had slept in them for a tenday, her bright red hair a frazzled mass that bobbed around her head as she clung to an
entire wing of one of Serredon's Aspect Warrior guardians. The Aspect Warrior in question stepped into the room after her, and despite his helmet, managed to radiate a glare that could cut through plasteel. Callie gulped, then held out the wing, mutely, and the Aspect Warrior snatched it back, then ducked out of the room.
"I can see future, past, and presents that never were..." Serradon said, quietly, turning to face the younger Farseer. "But I must ask...
how by the name of all the Gods of Misfortune and the Harlequin themselves did you
manage to DO THAT!?" He thrust his finger at the door as Callie grabbed at her glasses, trying to get the corrective crystal lenses to sit right on her nose.
"Well, uh, it was an accident!" Callie said.
"No, the Gambit of Nemerian on the mon'keigh slave-world of Calderis was an
accident," Farseer Serradon said. "You? You are a CATASROPHY!"
Callie, though, charged forward and suddenly, Serradon found himself both on his head, with his feet in the air, and in a smoking hole that he had smashed through a fragile collection of shimmering crystal-conduit fibers on the wall. Unaware she had even done it, Callie was bouncing up and down, throwing her hands up. "Yes! Yes! Yes! I was right! I was right! I was right!" She said, pointing at the shimmering fleet that, even now, drew closer. "I was...Serradon?" She turned, looking around for him.
"More's the pity..." Serradon grumbled.
CHAPTER ONE...
COMPLETE!
Normally, you'd get XP at this point! But your characters are so whacked out stupidly overpowered that that's really just gilding the lily. Also, I'm lazy! So, rather than XP expenditures and such, each character gets to choose between one of four minor upgrades - so you get some improvement, but nothing too huge.
Also, the Book and the Stasis Container retrieved from Karad Vall's domain must be opened...but there are means and ways to learn more about them before you open them. You get to vote on that now!
EM
[ ] Ability (+2 to each stat)
[ ] Enduring (+4 wounds)
[ ] Skillful (+10 to one skill)
[ ] Fated (+1 FP)
RYIA
[ ] Ability (+2 to each stat)
[ ] Enduring (+4 wounds)
[ ] Skillful (+10 to one skill)
[ ] Fated (+1 FP)
TINE
[ ] Ability (+2 to each stat)
[ ] Enduring (+4 wounds)
[ ] Skillful (+10 to one skill)
[ ] Fated (+1 FP)
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT (CHOOSE ONE!)
[ ] Study the book (reveals what opening it does at the
end of Chapter 2)
[ ] Study the tube (reveals what opening it does at the
end of Chapter 2)
[ ] Open the book (the characters will do so cautiously)
[ ] Open the tube (the characters will do so cautiously)
