Soul of Fractured Petals
Sephena Invillis was born on Equinox, the fourth child of two unremarkable farmers who had spent their entire lives working the seemingly endless fields of the agri-world. They raised her well, taught her right from wrong, to always follow the Imperial Faith and the will of the God-Emperor. It was a peaceful childhood.
She spent many a day in her youth watching her three elder brothers tend the fields, sowing seed throughout the season of planting, picking grain within the season of harvest. But she always knew, somewhere in her little heart, that her brothers yearned for more, to serve the Imperium as something more than simple farmers.
Thus, Sephena was not truly surprised when, one by one, year by year, her brothers declared their desire to join the local PDF and become Imperial guardsmen. Her parents tried to talk them out of it, each attempt more desperate than the last, but time and dedication wore them down to at least tentative acceptance.
Yet Sephena was not swayed with her parents, she couldn't understand why brothers were so intent on leaving the farm behind, leaving her behind, to join the army. Did they not believe their current service to the Emperor was enough?
She asked this of her eldest brother, questioned his decision with tear-stained sleeves and quivering eyes. He told her that it was not something that could be explained, only experienced. But Sephena was resilient, and eventually, her brother agreed to try.
So, one day, the two of them ventured to see the local PDF out on parade, marching across the world in perfect formation, guns and armour worn rugged with signs of battle, their thousands of feet shaking the ground with every step.
It was like nothing Sephena had ever seen in her life, so many people as to appear endless, so much force as to seem untouchable, so much strength, to become a will unbreakable.
She saw, and she understood.
It was not long after that day that Sephena announced that she too wished to join the Imperial guard.
She had expected her mother to be resistant but received only an exasperated sigh in response. She had expected her father to be immovable, but he had openly laughed at her declaration.
Upon clarifying that she had been serious, her father had simply smiled and told her that if she had so much energy to be thinking of such things, then she should be working the field more, like her brothers.
Time passed, and as the eldest brother left to join the PDF, the second oldest took up his duties. The youngest brother, in turn, filled the jobs the middle brother left behind, leaving Sephena with the work of the youngest brother.
So did the cycle continue, the brothers leaving one by one, shifting more and more work upon their sister's shoulders. The work grew harsher, but Sephena persevered without complaint, after all, how would she become an Imperial Guard if she couldn't even handle fieldwork?
Her dream remained nestled in her heart, a flame of hope and dedication that kept her moving through storm and rain, through feast and famine.
One day, after a period of particularly poor harvests, Sephena had gone to the market to trade meagre goods for even smaller profit, leaving her parents to rest after the most recent harvest season.
When she returned, she was halted by a wall of guardsmen.
They told her directly, without preamble or remorse, that the area behind them had just been victim to a Xenos attack, and that all civilians in the area had been killed before the PDF could repel it.
She had not believed them, demanded in rage to see proof, to see her parents. She was denied, told that all the bodies were being collected to be burnt and that she would be allowed back to the remains of her home within the month.
Asking got her nothing, so instead Sephena began to scheme.
Two days later, she broke into the 'crematorium warehouse', a massive building that government had claimed in order to store all the corpses from the attack pre-cremation. The area was off-limits to most civilians, but it was also not considered important enough to guard, so Sephena simply walked in…
And immediately wished that she hadn't.
The first thing that struck her was the smell; putrid rotting flesh hit her in a wave of nauseous fumes. Her legs buckled and only quick reflexes kept her for cracking her head open on the floor, so great was the sheer disgusting force of the stench.
The sight of the corpses only made things worse, limbs were torn, cleaved from torsos as if the worlds largest blender had fallen upon them in a whirlwind of serrated blades. Most bodies resembled large chunks of bloody meat then they did humans, flesh marked with sharp imprints as if the Xenos monsters had tried to devour the dead, tried, and failed.
Sephena left, unable to find her parents, unable to recognise their bodies among the crush of the deceased.
She did not sleep that night.
She did not sleep well for a long time after that night.
Just a few days later, one of her brothers visited, the youngest of the three. He visited her in the garb of a guardsman, face carved in expressionless stone, his grief visible only in the corner of his eyes as he told her that they were the only ones left.
The two older brothers had died trying to hold the line against a sudden surge of blood-covered Xenos, just a few days before the attack that killed their parents. News of their death had been simple one among thousands in the Imperial war machine.
Sephena's last remaining brother didn't stay, couldn't stay. He returned to his garrison shortly afterwards, leaving her to grieve alone in an empty house.
She went through the motions of life more machine than human from that day onward, acting without feeling, sleeping without resting, surviving, but not truly living.
When the Publicani arrived, Sephena quietly noted to herself that she, like most of the planet, would not survive the coming crises. But even the threat of encroaching death could not break her melancholy, for her heart had been dead for a long time now, and she was not afraid to finally be buried with it.
That is what she thought. Until a miracle occurred.
Like a lightning bolt piercing through the darkest night, the Priestess appeared. Garbed in robes of the Imperial church, she preached not of salvation through devotion to the emperor but of the coming of a saint, a Maiden of Verdance who would deliver them from starvation.
Sephena, like most people, ignored the Priestess. Until the miracle occurred.
Potatoes began to grow where they should not have been able to, nestled between the roots of grain plants, hidden from the greedy eyes of the Publicani.
Then, the High Priestess spoke of the Flayed ones, who had threatened Equinox for far too long, and would surely destroy all life on the planet without the PDF… or without a miracle.
The Priestess promised a second miracle in the Maidens name, and for the first time since her parents' death, Sephena's heart began to stir. The thought that the Xenos who had slaughtered her family would soon face the same fate…
Her heart began to beat again, slow and bloody, but purposeful in its rhythm. A flame of vengeance was lit, a broken wilted thing, small and flickering in her heart, but alive enough to answer the Priestess's call, and follow her to salvation.
There, Sephena saw the first Belladonna, saw the birth of the first Flower Knight, and knew in that moment that there was only one path left for her.
She joined the First Maniple, took up arms with other likeminded Maidens of War, and soon found herself running training drills in a large bio-mech.
The feeling of piloting her Belladonna was… euphoric. She became so much more than a tired broken-down girl with no hope left.
Now, she was a tired broken-down girl driving a giant whirling biological death blender.
The flame of vengeance in her heart blazed brighter with every step, feeding on her old long-lost desire. The desire born from the mind of a little agri-world girl watching an army match by.
The desire to be strong.
The desire to be unbreakable.
The desire to be a part of something impossibly greater than herself.
The flame grew, sparks of hope tempering the rage of vengeance into a burning blade of righteous fury, poised to strike at the first target that came her way.
Sephena got her chance when the Xenos attacked once more. The High Priestess led the charge, the rest of the Knights either striding aside her or following in her wake.
The Flower Knights surged forth into the alien horde, joining the battle in an awe-inspiring demonstration of destruction.
The monsters fell quickly, one good strike was all it took for the power of the Verdant Maiden to overcome the abominations. They fell to the ground like children's puppets with their strings broken, felled in a bloody harvest of scything lances and reaping blades alike.
Sephena's Belladonna romped through the carnage, an unfamiliar grin spreading across her face as the alien forces began to retreat before the might of the Maiden.
'We can fight them.' Her charging lance speared through a Flayed one's torso
'We can bleed them.' She crushed a crawling Xenos underfoot.
'We can kill them!' Her blades eviscerated the cowardly monsters that tried to escape her wraith.
'Praise the Maiden!' Her spirit cried out, burning brighter than ever.
Her soul might be broken, but Sephena Invillis would gladly give all of her fractured self to the Maiden in return for this wondrous blessing.
AN: Got inspired to write an omake about a random Flower Knights backstory, hope it turned out okay.
