[Wh40k x Starcraft] A Sarah Kerrigan knock off MC sleeps her way through the imperium of man with increasing amounts of kink - We're off hiatus!

[Dapperlad1]

Lilith is entirely Scribe. I handle many of the other characters, but that one belongs entirely to her, I think I've written one line of her dialogue in 90,000 words posted so far lmao. I appreciate the comment about Manth, I'm channelling some fairly foreign to me things with them, being well, an Eastern European male with no appreciable gender fluidity beyond knowing how to sound like almost anything I want to!

Edit: Oh dear its 110k words posted.

 

[Princess Scribe]

As quoted, I was commenting about Lilith.

Click to shrink...

You're absolutely right lol. My brain saw Slaanesh and was like "Mention co-writer." Without thinking too much on it.

Lilith, especially when it comes to Slaanesh, comes entirely from like my own little fucked up thoughts and desires and then wondering what fully indulging would look like. Really trying to figure out what indulgence looks like when it's enhanced. I didn't really have exposure to warhammer media outside of this fic, which is what makes it so interesting for me to write, so I really tried to dictate many of the character's actions from explanations, word of mouth what they gleaned from the small planet of Illar without looking it up myself. When I got told "There's a god of hedonism." My gut tried to help me figure out what someone who worships that would be. How they would be prey to it, what the benefits were.

Love and obsession are uniquely intertwined in very interesting ways. Funnily enough, I looked at a lot of tropey romance, took the literal definitions of what they were saying and based a ton on that. "Love at first sight, Until death do us part, I will always love you, I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, I'd go to the end of the earth for you." In order for Lilith to work she has to fall in love with a woman she never meets, Kerrigan so rarely interacts with the civillian populace there were only a few spots to really fit her. Working backwards from there ended up making everything especially the Slaanesh stuff very simple. The difference between Healthy love, unhealthy love, obsession, and adoration are very consistent throughout the fic and it's well I love returning too.

I think what I love when it comes to repulsion / attraction aspect my favorite scene that shows this is when Lilith first learns blood magic. Her logic is almost always stated out loud in fic because it's both got a very clear line, but that line very clearly diverges from a neurotypical think pattern. She even narrows down to who she can trust, and rely on, not only with Manth, but as a safety line. Her relationship with Abathur is so intensely important, because it shows that even the tiniest nice gesture, or spark of affection is enough to make her ride or die for you. It's actually extremely important to the build up to Thanatomania.

 

[Princess Scribe]

The vessel rumbles as another pulse of energy passes through it. The Warp Drive preparing to reverse course, to rip back into reality. A portal flashes into realspace, purple smoke billows in continent scouring clouds and the void of space replaces actinic purple-pink-red Warp.

As the ship burns thrusters, through every window can be seen the massive gathering of fleets here. A dozen different colours flown proudly, blue, red, black, green, even gold ships of sizes from barely larger than a Behemoth to things that can be confused for a space station until it starts to move.

The system is alive, hundreds of thousands of shuttles everwhere you look transporting souls to and from orbital assets, moons, mines and everything else imaginable. Varynna comments, "Macragge, capital of Ultramar." As the world of green and blue comes into view, a perfect marble in the daylit side, with trailing city lights barely visible around the planets curvature, the dark side just as inviting.

"Remember, this is an official event, dear, try and not say anything insulting to anyone." The Admiral suggests, a new identical black dress spun up and tailored for her in the time since Lilith stained it.

Lilith was a bit flushed still and giddy as she held Anastasia's hand. Little giggles spilling out as she stared at her, the fiery hymn now so loud it nearly drowned out thought echoing through swarm space through the three of them. The entire time they walked she couldn't stop staring. Anastasia's face had been crafted to be without perfection, her lips softer than satin, her body more velvet than skin, her shape a gift from on-high. The grip of Anastasia's hand would be worryingly tight for a human. Her other hand constantly stroked Anastasia's arm, or walked up it with finger tips. She had been like this for hours, now, with no clear indication why.

Both Anastasia, and Varynna were suddenly very aware of the danger Lilith was if the wrong thing was said to Anastasia, or even Varynna. The constant projection of a vulnerable need to protect was worrying.

"I see." Varynna comments to herself, "Lets get to the shuttles, I hear Lord Guilliman is still at reception." An excited tone enters even her, a giddy mix now afflicting all three women in very different quantities. The halls of the ship are crowded, but part before the Lord Admiral as the shuttle which contains the familiar helmet of Zares awaits.

Varynna is in first, settling down, popping a hidden compartment to reveal chilled drinks.

Before (continue) anyone can say anything Lilith snaps out of it, "Zares. I am so sorry. I thought you twowereintoeachother,andIwastryingtodosomethingnicebutanatoldmethatpeoplearesoawfulIamsosorryand." The barrage and manic energy has made everything about Lilith so much more intense, and so much worse.

Anastasia tried to calm her with a gentle touch, that made Lilith calm with a breath just a bit.Her mouth at least slowing down, and herself now draping over Anastasia at the touch.

"I'm sorry." She says, finally.

"Apology accepted, Lady Von Illar." Zares chuckles to himself, "Nothing happened, and we parted amicably." The smooth and firm tones leave no room to doubt his perspective. The flickering buttons of the shuttle accede to his touch, sending the flying machine rumbling into the void with a heading to Macragge.

The nerves started to build, as Lilith became more… Enamoured with Anastasia over the flight. Something no-one in the shuttle had previously thought possible. "Lilith… Did you have…" Then Anastasia turned her attention to Varynna, "Did you have anything out that'd… Cause this?"

"Nothing you'd be able to get." Varynna assures, smiling at Lilith's rapidly growing obsession. "I think she just wants to keep you as a pet for awhile Ana, nothing overly serious." She prods at Ana, trying to see if this is an avenue of reaction.

Unhelpfully, Lilith was already playing with the slip chain necklace when it was said. Looking at it and Ana's face with sudden rapt attention. Gently, tugging on the heart with adoration, her eyes dancing with glee as she heard each link cinch just a bit tighter. Stopping just a second from pinching Anastasia's neck. She studied Anastasia for a reaction.

Ana leans, nearly, into the metallic touch, trying to maintain some form of professionalism before others as Varynna grins dangerously and Zares studiously ignores as much as is possible. "L-love, we are going to a ball!" The Astropath quietly hisses.

"I know it's gonna be so great. Will they announce us together? I can't wait for everyone to call us Mrs. Von Illar." Her mind hearing something very different then what was being conveyed.

Staring at Lilith with a confusing mix of dismay and sudden adoring love, she struggles for words, inviting Varynna to dig the grave deeper. "Oh, don't worry, I've assigned criers to shout your titles, achievements and glorious, recent marriage to everyone around. Its planetary news at this point!" A spike of panic jabs into Ana, being told she's the planet's news.

It's quickly replaced by the familiar psychic screech of joy that pierces the swarm-space between the three of them, even the Behemoth miles away wincing slightly. "Oh my WORD." She says trying to practise some air of sophistication. "They're going to announce us?! Everyone is going to know your mine! That I'm YOURS!" The energy is off-kilter and erratic, the maelstrom of emotion now fully deafening with the unhealthy amounts of energy being put into adoration that only the truly broken can manifest.

The shuttle finally hits an atmosphere, the droning scratching of a blazing plasma sheath as it dives towards the world drowning out any words used by anyone inside. It pulls up, losing momentum in the dive before engines cut on, slowly slowing down until, as if brushed by a feather, the shuttle lands gently on a pad.

Outside the window is massive miles of beautiful, perfectly naturalistic city. Trees, gardens and parks interspersed between tall rockcrete spires and old apartments. Stores offer goods, sales mounted on windows in stick on signs. Everyone looks as if they're out of a period holo, wearing white, or really any colour robes, with foreigners clearly picked out with their more modern sense of dress.

As the door opens, a fresh, clean air hits the noses of everyone inside the shuttle, making Varynna hum in a pleased tone as she stands up, squares her shoulders, places a smile on her face and walks out to a cheer from a crowd that can only barely be seen in the edges of the shuttle windows. Ana's staring out the window with a mild terror.

You're scared? What's wrong? Lilith says, but can't help but get wrapped in the energy as people cheer. Following Anastasia out of the shuttle with a desperate grip, but also the most calm and poise anyone had seen from Lilith in the last two decades. She gingerly stepped out of the shuttle with a smile that seemed serene and placid like calm waters. Only the swarm-space aware of the mania the attention is bringing her.

A wall of sound hits the both of them as they exit. Oceans of celebrants waving flags, signs and anything they can to declare their support for people they've never met. Someone screams loud enough to be heard "I love you!" To whom that was directed, it can't be known. Varynna is waving to the crowd affably, keeping an icy, yet queenly demeanour about her.

She gives gentle professional waves at the crowd and balances Varynna's ice with a bright reserved pride. The incessant lusting and loving tamped down to project someone who seemed not only proud but proud of those around them. Not saying thank you, but making eye contact with those who look conveying appreciation with small nods and waves.

They chant phrases and titles and well wishes alike as the three woman group keeps walking, making it through the armed guard protected path through the crowd. The guards are in blue body armour, nearly-all consuming in how much of them it covers. Only the polarized eye-slit not packed on metal. They are, at least, human in size.

As they arrive at the end of this hall, a mechanical float is present, adorned with statues of Varynna at the head, with replicas of Lilith and Anastasia proudly at her sides, all staring forwards. They are in marble, with onyx, amethyst or morganite for eyes respectively. Varynna steps atop it and lets the tracks rattle to life, joining alongside a great caravan of these things, full of a dozen more heroes of battlefields so distant as to be myth.

In the streets below, lockstep Guardsmen march alongside a dozen colours of Astartes. Great walking machines tower above them as this heroic welcome acquires a militaristic aspect, a glorious celebration of bloodshed on massive scales. The stomp of boots and walker legs fills the air just as much as the screams do whilst in the distance, a fortress can be seen.

Tall walls cast out of Adamantine and painted blue loom as the parade gets nearer, guns bristling all along its breadth and length, triple layered for safety and manned by more men in that ensconcing armour. Varynna whisper-shouts to keep it somewhat a secret. "The Fortress Monastery of Macragge! The largest in the Segmentum!"

The words wash over Lilith, as another few proper nouns enter her lexicon, Darling, Lilith now taking the character to full heart even if Swarm-space had become overrun with manic energy. What is a Fortress Monastery compared to a normal one I mean. Also, what is a Segmentum? The lilt of Lilith's tone was shocking, now suddenly bouncy and melodic.

A place where a Chapter of Astartes, the Emperor's Angels train. This is…the largest in our fifth of the galaxy. The awed voice of Anastasia is evident, never thinking she'd be here.

As she felt that, Lilith, keeping the character, said My dear, this is just the start of what we see together. Enjoying that she had earned something for Anastasia. When you say Angels, do you mean the pretty armoured girls with wings?

She points at the power armoured titans marching beneath, armour still slightly stained with four-dozen varieties of blood. His angels of death. Ana answers the question shakily.

Huh… Weren't some of those on the ship? Lilith wondered watching as the procession continued, Do you want to meet one at some point? I'm trying to think of more things and experiences to work towards for you.

As the vehicles stop, having pulled in front of the Fortress and its massive, thousand foot walls. Ana answers, I…don't know. Stairways slip off the floats and Varynna finally intercedes in this Swarm conversation, Dears, those are veterans, the ones I have are barely fifty.

The armour looks neat. Are they that big inside? Lilith wonders following behind, absent mindedly stroking Anastasia's arm, not having let go of her for a second. Ana returns the touch with a lean, feeling uncomfortable with the wall of powerful eyes on her.

As the Admiral walks down the stairs first, she answers, Between seven and nine feet outside it. Yes. Shaking hands of waiting officials with a smile and polite nod, she seems able to multitask well.

Am I supposed to be glad-handing? Varynna? Then turning to Anastasia, Anastasia we're with Varynna it's fine. They can only look.

Speaking audibly with a grin, Varynna shouts back, "Only with the ones you like!" Skipping a woman who looks incensed at not being greeted by the Lord Admiral. Ana, on the other hand, calms down somewhat at the words of safety, controlling her breathing and placing the distaste of the Witch firmly on her face. I need a lho stick. She grumbles.

I have a pack, don't worry, later. Lilith smiles, not making eye contact with the incensed woman, following the Lord Admiral's lead. Though, suddenly, she felt… Very… in place. The tent cities of Tarsonis, her time in university, it had all been… Similar. Dangerous people and not dangerous people, intermingled looking for scraps to try and lie, cheat, or praise their way into. A hierarchy that was clear, but not clear enough. Tiny unspoken rules that could only be learned by being well taught, or well experienced. These were just people. Desperate and power hungry. Like anyone else.

Eventually, normal men and women turns to others. Armoured Astartes of a dozen different colours, some brutish in appearance, others with smooth, near-perfect faces and long hair, others still with cybernetics cutting through their flesh visibly. The first to strike Lilith and Anastasia is a woman, nearly eight foot tall, with very real feathered wings stretching behind her. Varynna bows at the waist before her as she looks down at her with a smile.

Is that…Saint Celestine?! Ana is shocked beyond physical words.

Girl bow, Lilith snapped, bowing with the Lord Admiral, If she's bowing we probably should be as well.

Getting over her shock, Ana bows as the woman tilts her head in bemusement, black hair like silken sheets, armour fitted perfectly to her. "I am indeed, little Astropath." Making Ana's eyes widen suddenly and Varynna bite the inside of her cheek.

She has win— Fu— My word. Lilith suddenly felt exposed. I can't say "you're the woman from the holo picts" but also, I assumed that was an actor. She can still hear me.

"Indeed, I've heard much about you, Lilith Von Illar!" Her voice is like a drumming church bell, terrifying in its power, yet somehow calming in its surety, "Lord Guilliman speaks highly of your defence. I would entreat your attentions later, if you would have me." Varynna shoots a look that leaves no room for wrong answers at Lilith.

"Nothing would honour me more," Lilith said, as her mind starts to peal with excitement at being called von Illar, "I will be looking forward to it, thank you." Looking to Varynna for a Do I bow again, or… Title or..?

"Just go on with your day, bowing is ever so…odd to me still." The Saint waves as she encourages the women to move on.

"Of course," She says smiling as Lilith trots off trying not to skip. Once what she thinks is out of ear-range of Saint Celestine Is everyone privvy to this conversation? Or was she special? I mean special in abilities, I have not seen many giant Saints with Feathers and Golden Armour.

"She is a Living Saint." Varynna answers with a small smile, "All she can say or see is truth. I suppose that extends to hidden conversing." As the last of the dignitaries are appeased.

That is incredibly disconcerting considering how I live my life, and my self esteem, Lilith says, following Varynna's lead with a smile. "Well, wasn't that a treat Anastasia." Lilith said, practising not being a swearing, lecherous, cur.

"I felt…safe?" She's staring forwards, utterly baffled, "Around her-I mean." Ana's gaze moves back to the Saint, still entreating guests like an old Goddess of War.

"I felt…" Scared. Seen. Exposed. In danger. "Really happy to see you light up like that." Lilith completed with a smile, giving her a quick squeeze.

Finally, the end of the cavalcade is a man, but no normal man. Even sitting in armour, he is well over eight feet, likely another two or three when standing. Blue and gold interspersed on the powered frame of his suit, a face of almost perfected features, high cheekbones and a strong jaw drawn from ancient marble mythic statues.

A flash of blue power armour, smell of whiskey, a vulture's Ion thrusters— Lilith winced at the thought internally, but stuffed it away.

He looks down, a laurel wreath surrounding the short blonde hair, and nods. "Welcome, heroes of Parmenio." The Lord's voice booms through the chamber, powerful beyond any normal human, "This ball is in your honour, first and above all else. Lord Admiral Varynna, Ladies Anastasia Von Illar nee Ultramar and Lilith Von Illar."

Oh no… Lilith had a flash of concern looking to Anastasia, I thought… That means on paperwork you joined my family? I wanted to join yours. Lilith can't quite grapple with why this is important to her.

I existed before you Lilith, it had to be this way, Anastasia, for once, got to use her own honeyed truth.

"I am honoured, Lord Guilliman. But in truth, this victory was the Emperor's alone." Varynna bows again, "We were merely his instruments of war." The compliment goes over well with the crowd, many respectful voices, but to Lilith's superhuman social senses, a flicker of distaste passes over the giant's features. It is schooled away in a tenth of a tenth of a second, so fast that Lilith could believe it was a mirage.

"Of course, my Father works mysteriously." Guilliman answers. "Please, take your seats beside me." He gestures to the gorgeously luxurious thrones beside him, sized for humans rather than titans. Draped in gold, purple, black and white, they beckon silently.

As Lilith follows she starts to take in everything she knows about the man. Not into debauchery, Varynna trusts him implicitly, isn't… Daddy issues possibly? Might not have anything do with the religion. Too much of a risk right now to see if setting us aside in usefulness would garner any good will. We already proved it, and have the meeting for that. Don't need to ass kiss. Isn't seemingly surprised at Varynna's abhumanity either. Neither were the crew on her ship, or anyone here. Second from the throne, did he approve it then? Are our "gene therapies" already that widely acceptable?

The Saint sees truth, said good things about me… Either knows how to work me up, or it's a low-level psychic connection. She looks to Anastasia now, Nervous still, awestruck, Varynna is excited to be in Guilliman's graces. Does she know ? Is she riling him up like she does everyone? She has nine-hundred years on you and zerg senses. She must.

Lilith follows silently, something about this place, this setting feels… Intriguing in a way that gives her laser focuses, all of her thought processes now easier to split on different threads of information, finally enough details to soak in that her mind isn't left bored and wandering. She looks to Anastasia again wondering if Lord Guilliman could be prompted to compliment her? But of course not, that has weight more than the simple words.

Varynna moves to sit on the left side of Lord Guilliman, leaving her as the barrier between the demigod and the two other women.

She pulls a chair for Anastasia to sit next to Varynna, letting her love be closer, giving her the seat of honour. It means more to her, it feels more important. They have the Swarm link to discuss if need be. Her mind clicks in seconds doing the social calculations. If Lilith is separated from Varynna's teasing as well, Anastasia can excel at the pressure. Lilith can give encouraging words, and feelings without getting her attention drawn away.

Its…surprisingly less terrifying than anyone could have guessed. The vast inner palatial chamber of the Fortress Monastery is ringed with paintings, tapestries and marbled pillars bearing gold. Supplicants come to offer their gifts to the Emperor's Favoured Son, as they say, kneeling before him.

At one gift, a pair of jewel boxes, Guilliman carefully says, "Of course, I accept, and if its no dishonour, I shall gift them to the heroes of the day." He reaches out and clasps the large boxes in one hand, moving them before the three Heroes carefully, like one would place something in front of a fragile glass vase, trying not to hurt them in any way.

If we take it we're claiming to be the heroes. Varynna has the power right? So… Varynna should take it, plus if we take it then we're seeming greedy. Though maybe it's a dishonour to turn down. Might be a bribe? Lilith gives a quick scan reading Varynna's reaction and everyone else's carefully as she watches

Varynna smiles and pushes the boxes down towards Lilith and Anastasia, "I thank you, Lord. It is a mighty gift you've given us." As the man who presented it turns and walks aside to the growing mass of supplicants to allow the next supplicant through. The boxes are wooden, varnished carefully and with a gold-latch lock. Ana looks at them somewhat surprised, as if not expecting gifts.

Oh, it's the generals from Korhal returning with their chunks of planet. She realises, tithings. The gifts are being passed out to honour because he has no need of this much plunder, or to seem less greedy. Then looking at Anastasia, she realises they have nowhere to put the boxes. That and Guilliman hates this. Then it clicks, Oh she said US. We're the generals of Korhal. These are the medals.

Lilith looks at the supplicant, and with a warm smile says, "Thank you, so much. We'll cherish it especially with our wedding having been so soon to the battle. Also, to you of course My Lord, and Lord Admiral. We're honoured to be treated so kindly."

"You've already been married in ceremony?" Guilliman asks, turning his head curiously to Varynna and then the rest of the women. "If so, I've a venue to cancel." His chuckle is a booming thunderstorm.

"The battle interrupted a lot of things, then there was rebuilding, and administrative work. It got cancelled, so… Technically this is our first gift until we can get everything back on track." Lilith says.

"We can discuss more when not so many ears are listening intently." He casts his eyes on a point in the crowd, making the obviously enhanced, at least to Lilith's, and apparently his senses, nobleman listening in look to the ground, shamed.

Something that catches the eyes of many is the Saint Celestine hovering around and then picking up a woman, as if playing with her, making her blush and stammer. Defusing much tension immediately as she answers with something that deepens the blush even more.

Mommy. Lilith thinks as she watches the giant Saint.

"That." Varynna says carefully, "Is Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax. Being tossed and hugged." Each sentence carries a century of baffled preconceptions each. "By a living saint." She finally sighs out, as if at her wits end with the world.

No, keep it together Lilith. "I have never felt more comfortable in a place, than when there are open displays of affection." Lilith says with a smile. So much better than will she step on me, way to go Lilith, WAY to go. Watching the two women, wondering how much staring is appropriate. She nestles a little into Anastasia, a slight lean.

Finally, the last supplicant comes forth, offering swords that flicker with power along their blades, a humming generator in the hilt an obvious source of the aura. They are accepted and passed on to a "Master at Arms", an Astartes in a bulky by even their standards suit of armour, taking them away somewhere.

With that, Guilliman stands, prompting Varynna to do so as well, quickly followed by Lilith and Ana realizing social cues. He clearly resounds, "Servants of the Imperium!" Him raising his voice is enough to put a chill down the spines of anyone nearby, something more than natural apprehension at his size, something inhumanly nerve-wracking. "We celebrate victory today! Victory against the Arch-Enemy in the open field! Do not mourn the dead, for they died heroes! Instead, hope for their legacies, prepare to carry their cause forwards! Drink, eat, make merry this day, for tomorrow, we set sail for Terra!" The roar carries through the mass at his words, rapidly spreading outside and all the way through the cities as he commands a world with his voice.

Immediately, the drinks are poured, tables are filled, the Saint stops obviously flirting with the much shorter woman, instead just idly talking as she places armoured boots on a table uncaring of the "image" she shows. Even Astartes in various ways join the celebrations, from bearded giants that immediately set to outdrinking all the mortals around them, to reserved conversationalists, to stiff warriors unused to joys of this stripe.

In her mind she looks at the saints, the flirting and the boots before saying to Anastasia, Finally, some people just being normal. We've mostly been interacting with the military I realise. Not seen much else. Looking out to the crowd with a bit of calm, finally.

Yes, we are all still…human. Staring at an Astartes with a short blonde beard and a very loud voice drinking and carousing, Even his angels, I think.

It's blondes then for you? For me it's just people who could kill me. Or show affection. Very simple woman. Lilith thinks as she follows Ana's gaze with a smirk.

A harsh noise of stopped though sparks from Ana's mind as briefly, images of the titan naked flash through her, That-No, I will not think of the Astartes in that way! She says, as a woman in much slighter powered armour pushes at the giant, saying something that catches his attention with a wry, cunning grin.

Lilith with a smile does the imagining for Anastasia, letting her own vivid thoughts paint the scene for her. While men were not… Her choice, she knew enough to paint an image. Letting Anastasia's own form be princess carried by the Astartes.

Anastasia resembles a boiling tea-kettle rapidly, looking hatefully at Lilith. The fire in her eyes trying to scour the filth from Lilith's mind.

 

[Princess Scribe]

I know it's silly to keep saying this in our own thread, where I've already posted a hundred thousand words that makes it self evident.

But I love writing this fic so much lol.

I learned about Celestine as we were writing that update. She's so great.

 

[Princess Scribe]

Celestine pulls her blade free and slams it into the ground with a laugh as an Astartes challenges her to something, a contest of some kind, but before she does, she points at Lilith with one finger, "Lilith von Illar!" Her voice carries with the holiest of echoes imaginable, "I need you!" Her word choice is either remarkably intentional or very coincidental as she turns back to the massive hulk of a Space Marine, even by their standards.

She turns to Ana, "Please."

Sensing an opportunity for revenge, Ana grins, "Should I?" The blush fading fast from her face.

"Ana, I've only done like, two or three incredibly embarrassing and mean things in the last day." Lilith 's mouth running faster than her head. "I'll be less of a brat."

Ana quickly pounces on it, "Deal." Face showing something very orchestrated is forming as a plan in her mind.

Lilith seals the deal with a quick peck on the cheek, and tries to calmly move, but can't help herself being a little giddy. Her vivid imagination is finally stuffed down as she remembered that Saint Celestine can see the images she conjures, with bright eyes, she says, "Saint Celestine, I live to serve." The last word having a curious lilt on it.

"Wonderful!" She says, starting to reach for her plating as the Astartes settles on the opposite end of a stone table, "I've bet this gentleman I can beat him without any armour on!" Celestine's voice rises to a crescendo at that declaration. "If he wins, I'll be his accompaniment for the evening! If I win–" She's cut off.

"I'll fight him for i—" Lilith bites her tongue, every time a pretty woman gets in front of her she turns into an idiot.

Smiling brightly at Lilith, she laughs and pats her shoulder roughly, "Help me get my wing plates off, Lady Von Illar!" Turning her back to Lilith and letting her figure out how to get it off.

"Ha!~" Lilith said before looking at the armour inspecting it. Then realizing a hundred and sixty-three centimetres she was probably going to need assistance. Not totally aware of her surroundings, she drags a table much larger than herself with ease, getting on top of it. Before examining for straps, keeping mild conversation as her hands… Roamed.

The clasps come off, revealing a thin, sleeveless shirt and a multitude of tattoos over her back and arms that circle around and past dense muscle. Surprisingly completely scar free, she looks perfect, without a flaw to any part of her.

There's a very distinct urge to touch instead of look, and she stuffs that down, with about three dozen other mental images. "Hmm." Was the best she could make out. You don't have to talk Lilith. I need to be charismatic, loo— she can hear you.

Clasping hands with a clap of thunder, Celestine and the Marine grit their teeth as servo and transhuman muscle start to push against divine flesh. The table gets a hole burrowed in it as elbow and elbow plate make progress against the stone. The Saints muscle flexes constantly, locking many pairs of eyes to her as, inch by painful inch, she forces the machine-enhanced power slowly, ever so slowly down. Pneumatics whine, metal groans and when the plane is broken, she smashes his gauntlet into the table with a scatter of stone and a cry of achievement.

Immediately grabbing Lilith and the other woman, they are pulled to her sides like dolls and held tightly in celebration of success, "You are strong, Angel, but not strong enough!" Celestine laughs powerfully, thrumming waves of feeling escaping her and bringing the moods of anyone nearby up. The Astartes chuckles, taking his own drink

"So if I beat you in arm wrestling…" Lilith doesn't finish the sentence as she lifted up, "How many chances would I get exactly?" It's a jest, but every inch of her is on fire at this point.

"Well, Lady Von Illar." She gently whispers, "How many do you think you'd need?" A power flickers through the Saint's words, psychic, magic, divine, Lilith couldn't say, but it sends emotion flaring whenever she speaks, whatever that emotion is, it's heightened, sharpened.

"I don't know, we should probably practise a few times first." Trying hard not to melt in the woman's eyes but having her every feeling pulled out of her. Changing the subject quickly, trying not to latch onto the woman's face. "What did you get if you won anyways?"

Placing Lilith down, as well as the other poor woman who finally can go back to the very complex and important conversation she was having, Celestine answers, "Him kneeling in front of.." She points at a man staring wide eyed and terrified as an Astartes kneels before him, "That man who couldn't try to control his depravity around me. Now look at him, unable to even breathe!" Laughing wildly afterwards, shaming the target even more with her stare and joy.

"Ah!~" Lilith says again looking over, "Why does an Astartes kneeling before him make him breathless?" Lilith said as she tried everything to force those inner thoughts DEEP down.

"Because," She laughs, unable to control her volume, "Now, he's dishonoured him by not accepting it!" The man looks pale, and then faints, making Celestine once again break into a raucous enjoyment, holding just Lilith to her now.

Not really fully aware of anything when she was pulled close, she just looked up at the giantesse. "I—" She keeps trying to speak, but the words keep catching. "I— I am normally more charismatic than this. You are… Very ta—" Lilith cuts herself off, "You seem normal, which has been a rarity lately."

"If you want my attention, Lady Lilith. Speak your mind." The Saint chuckles loudly, "I see Truth, everything else is background. Besides." She leans in closely, "I can hear the thoughts anyways." A whispered proclamation that buzzes and rings bells through Lilith with the vibration of the words.

"Oh good," Lilith said with a sigh, letting the stranglehold on her mind release so she can put more thought processing into the interaction. "To be honest, a normal conversation would also be cool." She admitted.

"You are currently being held to the chest of a Living Saint, Lady Lilith." She deadpans. "Normal was…awhile ago."

"I am, yes," Lilith admits, truly unaware of the importance of the situation, "Normal is just whatever we get used to I guess. I could get used to this. Why did you need me? Exact— OH! Oh." She immediately catches on, the timing with the toying with Lady Von Illar nee Ultramar.

"There's that if you think I'm that way." She chuckles, "But there's also the fact that I don't get many women brazen enough to imagine me on my knees." The next comment is unfortunately loud for what it contains, "And feel absolutely no shame over it. It is Truthful, and thus, attention-grabbing."

Looking at the fainted man, at Anastasia von Illar, and the surrounding room, there's something in Lilith's chest that says she's about to get chucked out of the window, "I don't… Really feel shame about affection. It's… Affection, it's for anyone to give or receive at their leisure. More importantly Is the other Lady you were tossing around earlier going to get mad if I shoot a shot."

"Inquisitor Greyfax, for all her many beauties." She shouts over at the woman, making her sigh, "Does not see me that way-Or anyone, really." There's no heat or distaste to it, just enjoyment.

"Oh, you're like me, you just say the things!" Lilith says getting far more comfortable.

"After a woman feels what having a sword nestled in her chest is like, she loses many barriers." The Saint laughs at the memory, "And I had twelve before my First Death!"

Lilith leans away slightly and looks her over front and back, "You look great for it to be honest." Her own hands now returning the embrace. Then, quieter, "Is the kneel—"

Lifting her shirt up to show the scars just below her bra, she points out where the blades, all dozen of them seemed to have pierced her. "Oh, you can tell, just look carefully." Grizzly scars of jagged edges present all throughout, just past abdominal muscles.

"I'd ask if it hurt, but I've been sho—" Don't say you've been shot in the head by a Bolter, she knows, and also sounds insane. "It looks unpleasant."

"I've had that happen as well. It's deeply uncomfortable, right?" She answers the mental question, "That was… my Seventh Death."

"Yeah, that or windpipe being crushed but not enough I think is the worst, it's the trickling." Lilith looks at her again, "Are you counting down, or up to something?"

"Keeping track, seems the sane thing to do?" She shrugs, "I'm up to fifteen now."

Lilith grimaces to herself, Should I have been keeping track? "That's… More than the average person I think." Then via the swarm link, Is Lord Guilliman waiting, because this… I could sit here for hours, you two.

"Lord Guilliman can busy himself, if you'll make the time for me, Lady Lilith." The Living Saint promises, as Lilith can smell something like apples on her, a perfumed scent.

"Then I have to as—" Then a smile, "I love apples… I uh… I'm going to shoot my shot then. Was there anything particular you… saw in my head that looked interesting?"

"Would you like to know something very interesting, Lilith?" She asks, quietly.

"Yes, I would love to literally talk to you for hours." Lilith responds, leaning close.

"I'm a virgin woman." She laughs quietly, nestling in closer, putting her face in Lilith's hair.

"By… Choice?" Lilith asked as she returned the hug, "Also, if not where exactly does that line stand."

"No." The Saint answers, "And I have never even kissed someone. Never had the chance."

Lilith looks around the room and shrugs, "Are… You busy? Right now?"

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?" She thrums her voice, sending a shocking vibration through Lilith.

You moron go the whole nine yards, "You are," Lilith says recovering, gently alighting her hand on Celestine's arm, letting a single nail swing back and forth slowly. Tell the Truth "I forgot the fun parts, I got a little over-eager. You can't imagine how distracting," Lilith says, letting the nail very slowly trace up a bicep, "It is to be held by someone so pretty and strong."

"There you are." She smirks, "The seductress I saw so much of." The angelic tones of her voice are piercing, just as much as her brightly golden stare, flecking pieces of light falling from the eyes and dissipating in the air.

That made Lilith blush, "I'm surprised by how flattered I am right now." The nails climb ever closer, to the top of the shoulder, before she turns her body in Celestine's arms. So that now she fully faced her, legs almost wrapped around Celestine's midriff. The other hand now gently resting on Celestine's side. "If you see Truth, then you know how much I'm loving being held by you right now. Though… Maybe there's other signs." Lilith is whispering now, giving her whole heart into this one goal. She has No idea who this pretty girl is, or how she can read her mind, but by god she was going to let her know how great she made Lilith feel.

"Anyone tell you you're very warm?" She kept calling her Lilith, very possibly permission to call her her name, whisper it very low girl, "Celestine?" She leaned in close, the arm around the waist, and the one over the shoulder now interlapping as the leg's do too. Very slowly making contact.

"No." She clearly responds, suddenly very interested in Lilith's eyes, "No one's ever been brave enough to find out." The Saint's touch carries with it a slight burning, not painful, not truly, but with heat as it scourges something on contact. "Has anyone ever told you, Lilith, that you are beautiful?" She whispers, gently resting her hands on Lilith's waist, holding it firmly, so much of her strength held back and yet still powerful.

"Twice, wait, no once." Lilith says honestly, "And it was about my behaviour, not my looks. I have requested someone call themselves beautiful to win my… attentions once though." The heat is hot, and now the hand was easy to slide from the waist, over to the shoulder smoothly. "I'm suddenly very curious how much warmer you'll get." She's whispering now, her eyes half-lidded. "I would very much like you to ask for a kiss." Lilith said leaning close.

"Would you like to fly, Lilith." The Saint smiles. Flickering wings unfolding into white feathered vastness.

Deep breaths, Lilith says, panting with excitement, trying not to break the moment, "Yes." Oh my god you're going to FLY.

The wings flare out, and in a burst of force, rocket both the Saint and her passenger up, smashing through stone like it isn't there to rise into the brightly lit sky, higher and higher until with a flap, she stabilizes above the earth, floating without flapping with a smile. The ground is far, far below, tiny dots of city blocks and the largest vehicles visible amidst the grey and green. Celestine looks nowhere but Lilith, devoting her full attention to the other woman, shirt fluttering in the winds this high up as her armoured bottom half clinks lightly.

"This is one of the coolest moments in my life." Her eyes are wide as the stone crumbles around her and in pure ecstatic joy she looks at the city, at Celestine, at… Everything. "This is amazing."

"Don't get distracted, Lilith." Her voice flares past the winds and clearly reaches the other woman, "You made a promise, no?" The golden light flickers from her eyes into sparks that fade in the wind while a perfect face smiles, divine in all respects. Long black hair flying in the wind behind her.

She looks at her, "This is…" If this is the first time, do it right. "Sometimes the best things are worth waiting a little for, Celestine." Her smile goes wide, and she leans in again, putting her arms around her head, rubbing the palm just under the jaw before letting the fingers pull back caressing the side of her face. She pulled herself in, her lips getting close, unbearably close as Celestine's fire made her feel warm. Letting the very tip of her lips almost touch.

"Tell me your Truth, Celestine, do you want me to kiss you?" Lilith lightly pecks her on the side of the cheek.

"I think I might act out if you don't. Lilith." The Saint repeats the name, letting it play over her tongue and slip out of her thrumming with energy. "I want to do much more than that to you." She confides quietly.

Instead of answering with words, she finally lets her lips gently touch Celestines, at first gentle nurturing pecks. Trying her best to not to invade, or overwhelm. Just a simple back and forth, occasionally teasing the very edge of Celestine's senses with her tongue. She kisses her a little bit deeper, letting her tongue explore just a bit more. Letting herself melt into Celestines senses, delighting when the woman returns the light play. Soon their connections intensify, and the heat gets warmer. In the cold atmosphere Celestine's sun blisters at something inside. Something that is completely unlike the warmth that she was feeling right now. Bright rays piercing every inch of her.

Lilith doesn't rush, someone so beautiful deserves the best and she so desperately wants this time to be cherished. She lets her tongue do more work, her hands move across her back. There's a whist of wind, and she remembers, with delight and fear how high up she is. Letting that infuse her passion. The idea of being dropped. She kisses her harder, then without thinking, a gentle nip on the lip as she pulls away.

"If… If you want to have the best time I can possibly give you, we're going to need a bed." She whispers.

The light flaring out of the Saint is painful, it sears at Lilith, sears at the very air, but still feels warm and loving, pain and affirmation in an undeniable, flagellant aura. She smiles past it as her wings fold to claps around Lilith, letting gravity slowly take a hold of them, starting a perilous dive as Celestine keeps her eyes locked on Lilith's.

The pure, unadulterated joy that rages out of Lilith as something… Beautiful feels unlocked, like a grip on her soul had been cleansed, she just holds the look almost tearing up. She doesn't know why she loves this specific pain so much, but it's unlike anything she had felt. Like alcohol spritzed on a wound, or the itch of a healing bone, or the cleansing of an infection. She feels pure she feels bliss. The moment is savoured as she looks at Celestine's eyes. Feeling… Grateful, for what she didn't know. Just… At peace.

I'm going to rock your world. She thinks, not wanting to ruin the moment by saying it.

In the darkness light by only the Saint's eyes, Lilith can see her smile broader. Wings flare out merely twenty feet above the ground, catching wind and lifting up suddenly as she rises to the roof of a grand…chapel? Monastery? Temple?

Landing inside the belltower, she finally lets Lilith go, holding her just in case she doesn't have the strength to stand. "Follow me, Lilith." As she starts to walk herself down the stairs into the building.

The stone feels, clean, unforgiving but disciplined. Each step she takes is a little wobbly but she suddenly feels so light. She worries, as she notices her legs having just the tiniest amount of give as tiny bits of it have to reinforce the others. Still it was amazing. She follows Celestine with stars in her eyes. With this burgeoning fire and… Something she never felt before in her heart. "O- O- Okay." She says quietly, "Sorry for stuttering, that… Ruled."

A confident smirk on the Saint's face is followed by, "Don't worry Lilith, I adore you stuttering." As she tugs her through a door into a large, but simple room, sized for the giantess. A plain bed with white sheets, soft pillows and linens. A harp in a corner obviously well used and a stained glass window of some legendary feat sending coloured light into the room.

Somewhere in the distance Anastasia and Varynna hear another psychic yelp at the word adore, along with the psychic shivers send down Lilith's spine. She looks at everything, and then tries to figure out the logistics of laying a nine foot woman down at five-feet tall, before finally deciding as she always tells others, to use her words.

 

[Princess Scribe]

Hey if you're reading this at work listen up!

The entire thread is NSFW by default, but maybe your work is more progressive!
The following content may be more explicit than your average update!

The next slide has trigger warnings for those who need them.

Normal Vanilla Sex, the scariest kind!

​

"I'm going to need you to sit down." A giant lustful grin in her eyes. Though… This felt different too. Like there was… Less being taken from the moment. It felt fuller and more satisfying. She pointed at the bed, as she made a split decision.

"Oh~." Celestine smiles through the words as she saunters over, generous hips swinging in a hypnotic arc whilst she undoes the belt of her armoured leggings, letting the plates crash into the floor, revealing very tight black cloth beneath. Sitting on the bed with just boots and clothes on.

"I'll help you with the rest," Lilith says as she very quickly slips out of her heels. Not, quite sprinting but with far less grace than she had planned before pulling herself together again. She looked at Celestine, her eyes glowing with essence. As her gameplan formulates.

"You'll be touching the divine today, Lilith." Celestine comments at Lilith's gaze, tongue flicking out to moisten her lips while sparks fall from her eyes.

"I'm more interested in touching Celestine, right now." She says honestly, seeing what she could only describe as a woman custom built to hit every single one of her interests. The eyes now greedy and hungry trying to figure out what will make this woman swoon. She says, "I'll need help with my suit. In a minute."

Then she slow— She stops, "You know I have a carapace right? You know everything, I just want to make sure it's not a surprise."

There's a small look of anxiousness at that, "Yes, and I also have to… warn you." Celestine carefully says, "Such things don't…always last around me."

Lilith didn't know how Celestine felt when the sudden exhilaration at being undone hit her, "Then I better make it worth it." She said, before painstakingly slowly picking up one of Celestine's legs, and unlacing the boot, gently undoing strings and clasps, until it came undone and pulled on it, with one hand under her calf, tossing it behind her. Then the other, even slower. Never breaking eye-contact as deft hands did dextrous work. Instead of moving onto the tights, she placed herself over Celestine's lap. The other woman's nerves taking over her as she shuddered.

Lilith's hands found the under-side of her shirt, but before pushing upwards she allowed them to press against the searing hot abdomen, the muscle thickly bristling underneath her touch. Her hands slowly massaged around, smiling as she noticed a little apprehension in Celestine. She reached around and grabbed the hem of her shirt, slowly pulling it up over Celestine's head.

An errant thought that's quickly stifled due to its irrelevance burbles up How does she know that Carapace burns of during se—- Doesn't matter worth it even if it kills me at this point. She admires Celestine's form as the tight athletic bra seems so tight that she would burst from it at any moment. Lilith gave herself a tiny hiss of joy, as she gently hooked her fingers under the elastic, pulling it free. Celestine having to stoop lower to get it off her head.

Realising, the Saint would need a little direction; she reached out to Celestine's arms, and put them on her waist. Unbuttoning her own coat, and tossing it aside. Celestine moved her hands to the front of Lilith's slacks gingerly, nervously, slowly with a bit of trepidation as it undid the belt, buttons and zipper for her. Lilith stood, kicking them off, kicking the rest off in moments now completely nude. She pressed her hand on Celestine's chest and pushed her back into the bed.

Celestine's heart started to race as if she were readying for battle. She was exposed, and the heat inside had nothing to block it's radiance from shining all around her. As she blushed a small halo of light seemed to emanate, one that made the edges of Lilith's senses tingle.

The saint let herself fall back, as Lilith pulled off her pants, sliding them off easily despite how tight they were. Exposing the patch of hair between her legs. She started at the top again, climbing to once again kiss Celesting more. This time deep and rough, letting her tongue fully consume Celestine's mouth, letting it crawl across her senses, before kissing her in a gentle trail back down.

Each sensation was new, terrifying and deeply intoxicating as Lilith slowly revved a now thriving engine. Using her fingers to part the hair, she gently let her tongue explore Celestine between her legs. Grinning ear to ear when she heard the Saint make a very familiar noise. Emotions of pride, and joy filled Lilith. Satisfaction, like she was giving someone the impossible. Very slowly she moved her tongue up and down the inner lips, letting them feel the full contact of her tongue, pressing against them and slowly sliding between them and over Celestine's opening. Occasionally rubbing the other woman's clit.

Celestine's breath hitched with the added stimulation. Her breath starting to slowly work its way up into pants. Still, Lilith was slow, ever so slow. She continued to probe Celestine before gently starting to swirl her tongue in circles around Celestine, starting different patterns and positions before she felt Celestine flex around her. She maintained herself, continuing once more. Letting the moment build and rise, letting the aura wash over her. Gently she explored Celestines opening with her tongue, finding that whatever may have been there had long ago been broken through exertion. Her fingers bring a second shuttering gasp.

She continued to work on Celestine, bringing the passion forward, waiting to see how she reacted to the plunge. Celestine's nerves made it hard for her to focus, and Lilith realised there was a slight tremble throughout her. With a small smile, Lilith stopped, and climbed back up.

"You're doing fine, relax." She said quietly, "You're getting into your own head." She gently ran her fingers through Celestine's hair, who was no longer looking anywhere near Lilith's face. With a smile she whispered, "There's no way to do this wrong ok?" Her hands explored Celestine's body once more, and then with a smile, she picked up Celestine's hand and placed it directly on Lilith's chest.

Her touch was surprisingly gentle, and Lilith delighted as she leaned in for a kiss. She could feel the tension release, and after a quick separation, moved herself to Celestine's lap. This time, there were not shudders, quiet gasps, and nervous trembles. Instead low quiet humming, silent oohs and aahs that ringed like Bells in Lilith's ears as she got more aggressive, pieces of her moving in tandem with rhythm to create a notes of sensation that combined into what soon became a symphony. Their music was faster, and faster, as faster. Reaching an ever encroaching crescendo that seemed to be heralded by every noise that came before it, before there was a cry that rang out so musical and pure as to be orchestral.

Every part of her flexed and shook, she exploded not only with light and energy, but a small trickle of wet that struck Lilith. Still she continued. They had not reached the part of her symphony that Lilith was looking for, when a sudden, louder, more powerful raucous boom of music lead to a climax that seemed to split open the universe around them letting in pure unadulterated light and warmth that pierced EVERYTHING tearing it, searing it, blazing it, bathing Lilith in holy fire.

It stings, it burns, it is agony, spreading through the room on waves of connection. Celestine shivers and holds Lilith, pulling her up towards her chest in an attempt to spare her the fury of golden light. Flesh sizzles as carapace falls away, her spirit cleansed in a blast of power that strips layers off the walls and shines through the stained glass window with starlight brightness.

Skin on skin is ecstatic, so much more sensitive as its cleansed, birthed anew in golden light, simultaneous agony and rapport. Its by shuddering gasps that Lilith returns to sanity, eyes blinking in the fading light as she feels soft hair on her neck, pink skin on porcelain, and something resembling intense embarrassment from Celestine.

"Lilith…are you…alright?" The divine being asks.

With a confused look as she touches her hair, "Yeah? Why wouldn't I be?" Rubbing it gently, touching the… Silky… Curls. The hair. Her hair not her tendrils her hair. "Oh, huh, well this proves that we are actually originally human I guess." She looks down at her body, "I am a treat. Still prefer the green though." Then a shrug, "Do… You want to go again?"

"Ah~." Celestine mumbles at the thought, "Its…normal to want too?" She asks, trying to solve an embarrassment.

"Personally? I never stopped wanting too really, but that's a personal choice. We're the… Superior gender sounds mean, but we have a few perks in that department." Lilith laughs, before feeling extremely weak and woozy as she tries to lift a part of Celestine. "Our sex stops when it gets boring. That's the only real limit. Or I guess cramping. A few other things, you'll know when you need to stop." As she rests herself down back on the floor her knees felt oddly pained.

Then she was quiet. "Oh. I need Varynna and Anastasia after this. I'm not freaky strong anymore. This does prove we're human though right?" Lilith wondered. "Anyways, try not to crush my head."

"I knew you were human at first sight, Lilith." She chuckles kindly, "Well, second sight, first sight was a different thought." Pulling Lilith up towards her bosom and holding her tightly, almost too tight as she's calibrated for someone tougher.

As Lilith is pulled forward there's a slight cough as she realizes, with actual, genuine fear that she could die at some point. Not with Celestine, but like… A brain aneurysm, a stroke, she could fall down the stairs. Fragile.

"I'll protect you." A voice that could split the skies promises, sensing fear and dismay in her partner, utterly implacable, thunderous.

The realisation that Abathur had toned down how lustful Lilith was not one she had expected to half as she was squeezed. It was in fact, something Lilith had thought was impossible. "Oh yes! Please ma'am." She then put her own finger in her mouth realising she no longer had razor sharp teeth. "What was the first thought by the way?"

"I liked your eyes." She admits sweetly, going from a goddess to just a shy lover in a single question.

I am in love. Lilith thought at the words, before realising that everything she felt was on full display. Then realising, that actually made things a bit simpler, in a way. "Thank you, I don't have anything near as sweet to say about when I first saw you. It was mostly… Mental images."

"I think being speechless is sweet." Another kind phrase, a natural charisma to Celestine, able to say exactly the right thing every time.

Lilith just hugs her quietly, before whispering, "Ana and Varynna are going to assume us having sex somehow killed me by the way."

"Well, that's a problem for later." The carefree admission is followed by holding the smaller woman closer to her, though easing up on the pressure. "For now, can I say I like your hair? I've never touched curls before."

"You're so sweet. Curls can tangle really bad, and… I don't think I've ever seen hair conditioner here, not that I've super been looking, so be gentle if you run your fingers through them." Lilith says, taking the woman's hand and placing it on her head, liking how Celestine just goes where Lilith puts the appendage.

Celestine spends a bit patting Lilith's head, not tugging her fingers through her hair, or snagging curls with rough fingers. After more cuddling, Lilith decides to let her hands roam further, to see what the light would feel through human sense. The enticing extraness of sensation spurring her to be a bit more daring, a bit more aggressive. The second time around, Lilith hadn't realised that Celestine was pliant but that Lilith was strong. Everything felt fun and new as Celestine had transformed from soft to chiseled. As breath started to hitch once more, and blush returned to the Goddess cheeks, Lilith decided to try once more, with softer, less intrusive touches.

A scent of ozone brings Lilith to full awareness. Something like lightning cracks, multiple, smashing nearby. Celestine is to her feet in a blur as boltgun fire sounds outside, her face moving from a kind and loving expression to a sort of righteous fury that sends chills down the spines of any observers. "Ambushers!?" She cries out, blasting the stained glass window with raw force.

Lilith runs to the stain glass window, to peer outside hoping beyond hopes that the ozone was a coincidence. That… It hit her like a freight train. The essence was fed to Manth. Who probably didn't survive Celestine's light. The essence must have returned, and the essence she fed Manth… With wide eyes and a sunken heart she looks out. "Oh… Fuck, that's my ex."

The roar of fury that follows that declaration is intense, an Astartes reduced to slag and metal through the window's odd tinting whilst Celestine summons a long, broad sword as her armour clasps to her on its own. Divine steel locking tight to her frame whilst the glow returns painfully bright. "Your former love is a mad dog." She declares, floating up to the window.

"Yeah, we were working on that but she tried to kill my current wife and it was an either / or situation … Don't get involved with me probably." Lilith admitted, as she looked around for her clothes. Quickly getting dressed so, worst case scenarior, she didn't die naked.

"I do what I want, Lilith." The Saint declares loudly, placing her boot on the windowsill before rushing out through the stained glass and clearing a hundred yards in a blink. Kerrigan reacts like a lightningbolt, collapsing her wings around herself as the blade strikes, chipping into them and shaking the woman with the force.

"Surrender, and I will show you mercy!" Celestine demands, windows shattering at the force in her voice, a thunderstorm that had been forming above being shot through with sunrays as the psychic force of it is buffeted by her presence.

"The hell are you!?" The Queen of Blades shouts at the angelic woman, "And why do you smell like that bitch?!" A lightning bolt follows the exclamation, forcing the Saint back with a molten trench in her armour, having taken the blow, but not unscarred.

Lilith, thinking hard, trying to figure out how to help. Realising this was entirely her fault, that there was nothing she could do, but seeing the blast hitting the saint. They needed a saint, Kerrigan was making them look like crazed psykers or daemons. Then she decided to hit a nerve, "Why the fuck are you even mad?!" Lilith yelled, "You were the one who was trying to fucking murder people. Sucks when it happens to you huh?!" The she watched for a reaction, to see if she could break Kerrigan's concentration.

Eyes snapping to Lilith across the distance, a pulse of psychic force forms around her, and is then promptly broken by Celestine's armoured fist slamming into her in a dirty hit as soon as she turned to Lilith. Before she can fly away, the Saint shows a disturbing familiarity with handling wings as she grabs the bone taloned wings on Kerrigans back and twists her into a stone shattering slam into the road below.

Not giving even a second, she falls upon the Queen of Blades with brutal, lethal intent, fighting not for victory in glorious battle, but for a short, vicious kill. Still, with a psychic exertion on Kerrigan's part, a wall of force throws the Saint tumbling back, smashing into a statue that collapses nearly atop her. Rising from the smoke on one knee with a trickle of blood from her mouth, she calls out, "Surrender, now."

Finally, Lilith realises what she has to do, and yells the command for Kerrigan's Thanatomanic drive, "If Raynor loved you he wouldn't have left."

An immediate reaction, a cry, a twist of exertion and a peeling of flesh. But in a few seconds, Lilith realizes she's fighting it, flesh rippling in active adaptation, eyes shot through with rage as she clings to life.

"How the fuck are you doing that." She whispers, eyes wide with horror.

"I'm g-going to kill you." The growl from Sarah is bone chilling, promising utter agony soon. Celestine's charge pulls her attention from Lilith and back to the swordswoman, blocking and moving around the lethal edge of her blade, finding the Queen to be the fast, lithe combatant to Celestines seemingly unstoppable force, crashing through street barriers, slicing down trees and overturning cars like toys.

"You will not harm what's mine!" The Saint roars, a prideful call, a thrumming battlecry as she clashes with Kerrigan's wings again, forcing the other woman down and away, stumbling with the power of the impacts, rippling air coming from it.

There's a moment when Lilith hears that, that she wonders if it's possible that she's not just insanely charismatic. Which means maybe she can convince Kerrigan not to kill her if she has… Something? Why was everyone around her like this? Did she have a type, or was she a certain person's type.

And seconds after that, the Queen slips a wing past Celestine's guard and into her abdomen in a spurt of golden blood that turns red in the air.

"You just signed the death warrant for everything you know and love you stupid, crazy, vengeful asshole." Lilith said morosely, "All you had to do was show an ounce of concern for anyone but your fucking self and your fucking fury. But you don't. You hurt everyone around you. Kerrigan, fucking EVERYONE."

Blood falling from her mouth, Celestine, instead of dying at the traumatic injury, finds the strength to reach out and grab Kerrigan by the head, distracted as she is by Lilith's tirade, not able to focus on anything but the woman with hate in her eyes. "I absolve you." She declares, and the Queens psychic force is shattered by a tidal wave of golden light that goes off, filling the horizon like a bomb.

When the light clears, Celestine is up against a tree, holding the injury, and there's a deep crater, Kerrigan nowhere to be seen from past its lip. The Saint is obviously in pain, looking at the injury annoyedly.

"God damnit…" Lilith whispers, "All she had to do was show an ounce of affection once just once. I'll be glad when I'm fucking dead."

"May-May I make a suggestion, Lilith." The voice of the Saint is strained, rough and shot through with the bubbles of a pierced lung.

Lilith nods, quietly, "Yeah, I'm always looking for good advice." She rubs her eyes wanting to sob.

"Perhaps, you should pick lovers more carefully?" She laughs, pained as the golden flow slowly ceases from her injury, breathing carefully.

"Did I just get you killed? Like a true death?" Lilith whispers sadly, "I didn't mean too."

Celestine, mercifully, shakes her head, "S-so long as the Medicae!" She shouts clear across the city, shattering more windows, "Gets here sometime Soon!" Another shout, "I'll be christened with a new scar."

"I did not slay your former lover." She says, nodding to the crater, "I absolved her of her sin."

"What does that—" Lilith stares out the broken side of… The bedroom, down at the street, where Celestine laid, far but able to hear her from so far away. "What does that mean?"

A naked, tan-skinned hand pulls at the edge of the crater. Followed by a tired, exhausted face that collapses just as it exceeds the edge. Red hair flattening in a circle around her.

"Oh fuck." Lilith leaps out the stained glass window, sprinting barefoot off the roof to the tree catching on with muscle memory but with muscles not quite able to manage it. Her feet and arms and skin rip as she tears over to both of them. Sitting next to Sarah Kerrigan, the most jilted woman in the universe. "Fuck."

 

[Princess Scribe]

Lilith sat with Sarah Kerrigan, a grim look on her face as she looked to Saint Celestine, "Does…" Lilith looked at the collapsed woman, "How much does she remember? What does… Absolving do?"

As a medic tends to her wound with a look of difficult concentration on his face, the Saint answers, "I forced her to confront her sins. All of them. If she's alive, then there must have been guilt."

"You know what I did," Lilith said looking at Saint Celestine, "Do you think she's still going to be pretty mad? Or do you think she'll understand?" Biting her lip thinking.

"I'm considering standing and sinking a blade into her." Celestine admits, "But it is not my place to decide the fate of another."

"Do… You… Think it was forgivable?" Lilith said quietly, "Do you… I know you know the Truth, but I don't know if you understand nuance or… " She groaned, she wanted to wail on Sarah for coming back after everything. She hated herself, she hated everything. She hated this.

Pushing the medic off of her, Celestine rises to her feet, clinking plate and mail stained with her blood as she arrives next to Lilith, falling to a knee yet still towering over the woman. "Do not fall under her spell again, Lilith. She has torn your heart out again and again." The voice rises to a crescendo at the end.

"Yeah… But I can fix her…" She whispers, "This time will be different, she can learn." There's tears in Lilith's eyes as she stares at the crumpled form. "She has to face her problems now, she can't just kill everything in her way… She can learn…"

"But why bear her pain when she will not bear yours." Celestine asks, putting a mailed hand on Lilith's shoulder.

"She… She just wasn't ready yet… I didn't give her time." Lilith whispered, quietly looking at the unconscious person.

"Do you wish Truth or Lies." Celestine demands, suddenly, falling across the world with an eye of judgment.

Lilith looked at Celestine, "I prefer the truth, most of the time."

"Her heart is still with another. I can sense it." The Celestial woman speaks, vibrating the air.

Lilith stands up, and starts looking for a bolter, or a gun or a sword, "AFTER ALL THIS TIME!?" She's incessant, "STILL!?" Where is it, where… "Medicae," A demanding voice, a voice that commands Zerg in battle, "Give me your side-arm." She holds her hand out, as if the order will be followed.

"Obey, Medicae." The Saint backs the order softly as the man provides a thrumming laspistol, capacitor red with energy.

Screaming pointing it at Kerrigan, she tries to fire pointing it at her. "After ALL this fucking time you lied about moving on?! After the fucking battle?! AFTER KILLING A TWENTY FOOT TALL DEMON, CARRYING YOU OVER fifty miles AND TAKING THE ENTIRE PAIN OF YOUR REBUILDING FOR EIGHT WEEKS YOU STILL HADN'T moved ON!?"

She tries to fire, she wants to pull the trigger, "WAKE UP." Lilith demanded to the unconscious woman. "WAKE UP AND ANSWER ME."

The body doesn't move, save for short breaths. Uncaring of Lilith's demands as the stress mounts on it. Celestine is still there, putting a hand on Lilith's back, supporting her physically as she wrestles with the decision.

"I LET YOU KILL ME, THREE. TIMES. I LET YOU SIT ME IN A CORNER AND SHOW ME NO PHYSICAL AFFECTION. I LET YOU INSULT THE ONLY PERSON SHOWING ME AFFECTION. THE ENTIRE, FUCKING, TIME. AFTER HOW MANY FUCKING YEARS KERRIGAN?"

"Because," She's getting low now, pissed, kicking rocks, "Because I needed to know after you were gone. I looked. You knew him for two years. Total, And after that, it was brief visits. You're not in love with HIM you're in love with the idea of him. YOU don't know when something is REAL. I bent HEAVEN and EARTH to get you somewhere stable, and you IMMEDIATELY tried to murder someone the fucking minute it didnt' go your way. You sat me in a fucking…"

"say something. Sarah." Lilith demanded, "Fucking say something,"

"SAY SOMETHING." Lilith fired the las pistol off to the side of the crater. "FUCKING SAY SOMETHING!"

The scarlet beam digs a hole into the earth with a burst of superheated air. The woman on the ground doesn't react even to the heat, completely still, breathing in short breaths.

"Celestine…" Lilith moans… "Am I yelling at an unconscious person?"

"Would it help if I said no?" The Saint rubs Lilith's back, heavy armoured gauntlet surprisingly comforting.

"I can't do it, I can't murder an unconscious person on the ground. We can take her back to the swarm just not… Queen of Blades her again. She can just be a normal fucking…" She looks to the Medicae, "Abhuman."

"If you are certain. I can carry your burden, Lilith." Celestine promises with a tight grip on her blade.

"I'm not. I just… Can't. It's… She was…" Lilith looks at the blade, it'd be so easy, to just nod her head and let the problem go away, but then… She wouldn't… That's what Sarah did. The only partner she expelled, that's her hard line. Relationship, Love, Lust, you don't… Kill people for pissing you off. "Did anyone die in this fight?" Lilith asks, Celestine.

"One." She calmly states, trying to keep her voice even. "A guard Astartes th—."

Lilith pulled the trigger, filling the body with lasers. Clean, surgical holes appearing through it, almost too perfect. "You just… Couldn't stop killing people Sarah. People are people, you never understood that." She whispered quietly. "I would never kill Ana, or Zhakarov, or anyone for… Pissing me off. Cheating on me, or trying to steal my relationships maybe, but not… Not people trying to make it work. You never understood that."

"Would you like to go back to your love, Lilith?" The Saint asks, wings flexing.

"I can't…" Lilith cries, "She's going to be so upset… She's gonna be so sad that I'm like this…"

"Then, would you like to stay with me?" She asks, a little quieter, with maybe a flicker of hope in her strained voice.

"Do you know… A doctor? A like… Psyker doctor? People act weird around me, and I'm starting to think it's my fault," Lilith admits finally, "People who… Shouldn't, it doesn't make sense, people far more powerful, and capable, and important, it happens everywhere I go. I think… I think there might be something screwy with my head."

"I know." The Living Saint answers softly, "I possess the sight of all Truth Lilith, you were wrought a destiny in this land. Your fate is written by hands beyond mine." Her voice rises to a crescendo again, flickering winds flaring and pulling leaves off trees. "I know not who, I know not whether they wrote something good, something bad or anything else."

A memory spikes through Lilith, a cackling bird head, as if on cue, waiting for this moment.

"I… I don't think." She looks at Saint Celestine, "How did you become a saint?" Lilith asked, "I'm going to hang with you a tiny bit."

"I died." Celestine answers, offering a hand to Lilith. "The first time, it was sheer chance. A shell from orbit landed mere metres from me. I was gone in a blink."

Taking Celestine's hand, Lilith walks with her but she feels so fragile and weak, she missed her zerg form. She just listened to her.

"It wasn't painful." She walks away from the battlefield with a light discomfort, "More or less a flash. I wouldn't awaken for centuries."

"Oh…" Lilith whispered, "Had a small hope that…" She shook her head.

"A hope?" She says, fluttering her wings to pull up and into a building's roof, not bothering with doors as it seems.

"If I want to be safe, I need to be with the swarm. If I'm with the swarm, I… Probably won't have much to offer you…" She whispers to herself, "I had hope there was a… Like a thing. In the Swarm you want to be the best you just keep rewriting yourself keep training you die you go back to the hive you rewrite and you keep learning."

"The truth is, Lilith. I am a warrior." She admits, sitting on the tarmac of the roof, "I will die. It's come close just a year ago when a Daemon's axe was in my lung. And when I do, I may awaken in an hour, I may awaken in a century." The words are mildly annoying for her to say, as if admitting this flaw irks her.

"What you have is permanent, it is there. When it dies, it comes back. I…I return at the Emperor's will." The Saint clarifies.

"I…" Lilith realizes that if she has a fate maybe this is it. Maybe this is… "Is… That… Do you prefer it that way?" She whispers, quietly.

"I hate it. I hate losing everyone I know, having my memory shorn, my life torn to pieces and returning on a battlefield." The admissions keep slipping from the Saint.

"Come with me…" She whispers, "We fight the Daemons too… I just need to get back in, and then I can add you." She whispers at a low low level, "You know the truth, you know I can do it."

"Do you remember the lessons of the faith, Lilith?" The Saint asks, mostly rhetorically, "Duty, Honour, Hope. The last one is most commonly sacrificed. I ride to battle on wings of fire tomorrow, we move to Terra, and then further afield." She looks at the sky above.

"I'll move the Swarm to Terra then, we'll take… Whatever you're fighting there, and then the next place. And the next place… When…" Then she realizes quietly, "I'm not in the swarm…"

"I can't let you die for nothing." She rubs Lilith's back, "I do not think I make it out of this crusade, nor most of the armies following."

"Bullshit," Lilith says, "You're making it out of tomorrow. You're going to fight you're going to win and I'll let all the swarm shit get blasted off me again for a day."

Celestine looks at Lilith with a smile, "Love is fantastic, you know? It's unmatchable. But this sacrifice isn't on a whim." She breathes in, "Lord Guilliman must make it before his father. No matter the cost."

"Celestine… Promise me I wasn't separated from the other two for some reason…" She asks quietly, trying to figure out why she'd pick her why… Maybe figure out why her self-esteem was so low. "Nevermind. I'm… Fucked. Again."

"Because you were the only one who didn't immediately shrink at my gaze." Something almost human comes out of the Saint.

"You can't make me love you then die the next fucking day." Lilith whimpered, "That's…" Then she looked at the imperium again and seethed. Looked at their lauded city with it's great heights with it's fucking glory and HONOR and DUTY. An empire of people dying so that great men can have great meetings. She hated this fucking place.

"Terrible." The Saint declared, "But, I will be back, Lilith. You are immortal, so…" She looks hopefully, "Wait for me?" Meeting Lilith's eyes with something glimmering, "Find me, remind me of who I am."

"Are you not even going to know…" Lilith whispers, her heart actually falling, "That's just a saying right, not like… Literally?"

"I think you, I'll remember." She promises.

"If you don't, I'll Kill you again." Lilith said angrily, pouting frustrated. Then a billion other feelings the swarm had taken away. Hungry, cold, tired, sleepy, thirsty, fragile, sick, frail…No pure drip of dopamine and serotonin. Just empty feelings except for the ones she loved in an empty world that sends people to die, in an empty fucking galaxy that just wants to wipe each other out. When she got back to the swarm, this would no longer stand. There would be no more of this terribleness. "I need to return to the swarm if we make it to Terra." She decided. "The Swarm, the Zerg will get Guilliman to his fucking meeting. I will see you safe there. I'm sorry, I have a different set of values, Relationships, Love, and then a third one that I've not got a great name for. I need to return to my wife and the swarm tonight. I'm sorry."

"Why be sorry?" She says, holding Lilith to her as wings flex, "You are following your heart."

Lilith returned her hug. Letting the moment sit.

"I… Kept things in my body. Did those fall out or… Am I in danger?"

---

The fleet in orbit shifts as the day passes, Lilith recovering from the pain of re-infestation in Anastasia's chambers, enjoying being doted on by her wife who consistently refuses any attempt for her to get out of bed. As the world spins fully to the next daylight, shuttles are loading with warriors actively, people packed up and into space every minute, tens of thousands at a time.

Ana looks at the shooting stars of shuttle exhaust, saying, "It's always odd when we march to war, it looks… almost peaceful, when not near the conscription grounds."

"The Zerg need to assist on Terra," Lilith said for the hundredth time, "We need to get involved I'm tired of this place fucking sucking. Constantly." She was in misery, not physically the body had healed for the most part almost instantaneously, but the Swarm-space had been flooded with her… Piety, when it came to Saint Celestine. Lilith had a roaring itch to fight and slay "The Great Enemy," Especially where Celestine might be.

"She… hugged you? And you fell for her?" Ana suddenly says at the burst of obsession. "That's all I had to do? I didn't have to seduce you at all!" She's pacing through the room.

"No? I love people." Lilith said quietly, "People are special. You're special. I do have to be attracted to you, and you have to say you love me at some point… I think. I wasn't obsessed until I saw her kill Kerrigan. So I guess you could have also probably shot me with a bolter."

Staring at her love with a mix of befuddlement and simple adoration, Anastasia says, "God Emperor on Terra, you are a mess sometimes." A smile follows the exclamation.

With a nod that is almost serene, "Yeah but… How many people have had an incredibly romantic moment with a Saint, and then choose to return to their one true love? So I have my benefits too."

Anastasia's breath catches at that, a hard reset found in her. "T-that is a benefit." She's intently looking at Lilith now, "We have business today." The Witch tries to distract as a lho stick rises to her mouth, ignited quickly and beginning to puff out smoke.

"Can I burn you with one of these some day," Lilith asks, as she picks up the pack and takes out one herself. Lighting it with a lighter on Ana's night stand.

"Only if you kiss it after." She smirks through the smoke, settling into the chemical haze and relaxing quickly.

Lilith looks at her, "You're are so brave, you know where I kiss."

The smirk slips into a grin, "Come now Lilith. You know I'll repay the favour." A dark gravel to her voice slipping as she takes another puff.

"That's what makes it so much fun some day, we'll know the exact limit and get to play with that forever." It was clearly meant romantically, but the energy had an odd manic malice to it. Then, quietly she whispered, "I miss Manth… The dream sex was nice."

"You know…." Ana says, "I do know how to…Oneiromance."

"I think we're already pretty good at romance already aren't we?" Lilith asks, taking another puff.

Laughing, she explains, "It means to enter dreams, love."

"Yeah, but you saw the dreams, in my memories? Would you walk into that? Willingly?" Lilith asks, looking at her with awe and wonder. The same way Anastasia looks at a Saint, Anastasia realizes.

"For you?" Anastasia lets that linger as she leans forwards, bending at the waist to be in line with Lilith's face, "I'd go much further." A wicked grin splits her face as she blows smoke out into her love's face.

"Fuck our plans," Lilith said with wild eyes, as she snatches at the back of Anastasia's neck and pulls her into a kiss.

---

 

[Princess Scribe]

"So you are serious." Ana asks, the image of Zhakarov in the Behemoth as they communicate with the Swarm. "You really want the Swarm to follow through dozens, if not hundreds of Chaos held systems, to fight through to Terra?" The question lingers on Lilith.

"Why are we busy with some other project? Every Chaos held system is another foot hold for the Swarm." Lilith says plainly, "We do the same shit we've been doing, until we get there, and we create a holding station that lets us retake it."

"Lilith isn't wrong." Zhakarov speaks up, finally. "This is an opportunity for the Swarm to expand in leaps, bounds. Merely farming one system is limiting."

There was now some nerves, generally, Zhakarov didn't agree with her, either she had landed on something, or… "Are you at all upset we murdered the Queen?" She looks at the screen. Studying it closely.

"Not meaningfully." Zhakarov answers, "Her power is a loss. But her instability is a gain." Clipped, careful and selected words leave no room to interpret his statements.

"Have we figured out a way to expand to other systems yet, or is it still communication based colonies?" Lilith asks, the real worry on her mind.

"Taking a page from the Queen of Blades, we have evolved Brood Queens, capable of holding broods under their sway." The Swarm Manager states calmly, "They will govern in our stead."

"How do you stop the Brood Queens from starting another Brood war, like the Cerebrates did?" Lilith was worried, and she rubbed her neck.

"They cannot hold more than one world's worth of Zerg." The only man answers. "Not a threat, not truly."

She looks at Zhakarov, "What's the best way I can help, but stay out of the way. My last attempt to help was… Catastrophic, unless you count Varynna. Then the attempt before that was Catastrophic."

"Continue attempts to convince Celestine to join the Swarm." The man shrugs, "Replacement, superior of Queen of Blades, defeated her in single combat."

"I had a plan on that actually as well, she's on Terra, but I also needed to talk to Abathur before I'm sure." Lilith said, looking at Zhakarov. "I looked at a lot of memories, but I don't know Why it had to be Sarah Kerrigan. If I take the pain for Ana, maybe we can juice her to Queen of Blades level psychic abilities." There was a moment if she wondered if she had discussed this with Anastasia yet, the look on her face seemed to imply that she had not. "The Queen's biggest issue was that she sucked as a person. A normal, caring, loving person in the same situation would be invaluable."

"Perhaps." Zhakarov agrees, once again unnerving Lilith whilst Ana frowns, "Wait just a moment. I wasn't caught up with this, love!?" A rapid question, trying to figure out what just happened.

"I wasn't saying do it, but it's no use even discussing it if it's not possible I wouldn't know what to ask you to agree to!" She wondered if Ana even listened to what she said, or could just translate the double-speak from her thoughts directly now.

"I-ugh, I hate transmitting and talking." Ana bemoans, "We can talk about this after."

"I am marshaling the Leviathan fleet. We will meet your Imperial fleet. I'd recommend contacting their leader, so we are not shot at." Zhakarov states, cutting the link.

She gives Zhakarov a big thumbs up, "Wait you said you'd get Abathu—" She looks, then back to Ana, "I guess the line is dead. I don't think he liked the idea."

"Queen of Blading me?" Ana asks in a whispered hiss, "What would I even do with that power?"

"Uh… Make me not worry that you're going to get hurt? Rip ships out of the sky? Blow up twenty foot demons with your mind" Those are all things I've seen her to do like… Lately?" Lilith said, as if the question itself was ridiculous. "Not literally, god I hate her. I'm just saying lets get you the power to control the swarm and start throwing tanks around. I'm running out of gift ideas."

She shrugs eventually, "Well…cosmic power doesn't sound so bad." Ana admits with a lip twitch, "I just dislike the comparison, I suppose."

"That's fair, it's fairly unpleasant. You're melted down, but not completely into essence, and then your brain is actively implanted with Zerg Cells, but the human tissue is left as is. I think. It's extremely painful until the process is finished." Lilith muses, thinking about what happened to the Queen of Blades in her mind.

"Respectfully to Abathur's work. Fuck that." Ana responds in a very measured tone, "All of that." She emphasizes.

"When we fixed her the second time, we learned we could just hook her pain nerves to my brain, so I just felt everything while she was under the knife." Lilith shuddered, her eyes going a bit wide at the thought. A light dying for just a moment as she heard a high pitched whistle. Then she was back, "But I got over it. You just put things like that in the box."

Ana reaches out and strokes Lilith's leg from where she's sitting cross legged.

"I did that for a woman who couldn't hug me." Lilith said, her eye twitching a bit. A deep, angry bile in her throat. "Even right after, I had to be big spoon. Isn't that funny." Her throat catching as it burns.

"You don't let me big spoon often enough." Ana says, rising to her feet smoothly as she slips behind Lilith and embracing her. "I like taking care of you Lilith, can I do it more?" She whispers carefully as she senses her love's pain.

"Eight weeks." She said, falling into her arms, "Eight weeks. Haha." Lilith letting her head rest on Anastasia. "It's funny, is all. Haha." The "laugh" was very hollow and dead.

"I love you, I know I can't make that go away." Ana mumbles into Lilith, "But I can love you now. And hope it helps." The embrace is briefly tighter, "Sometimes I wish I'd have fought the Queen, I think I could have managed something, maybe spared you the pain."

"I learned a lesson." Lilith said, emotionally flat suddenly, a small light getting snuffed out. "I actually learned two. Always check your essence after your re-birth. Never give up on someone who makes you happy."

Ana asks gently, "How can I make this better?" Trying to find footing in an unfamiliar situation, her voice is low.

"Keep hugging me, and telling me I'm good, great even. Tell me my feelings are valid." Lilith said quietly, squeezing Ana's arms tight to herself.

"You are my perfect, great, beautiful wife. I love everything about you." Ana starts to say with warmth, smiling through the words, "Your feelings are just as beautiful as you, your love is like the sun to me, when you're sad, the world is darker for it."

The words soothe Lilith's mind, a balm to her feelings and wounds, and without realization she drifts to a peaceful loving sleep.

---

A shuttle carries the Swarm's representatives, all two of them, to the unbelievably massive ship of the Primarch-Lord. Slipping past the vast blue and black armour plating to arrive in the docking bays of the megaship, feeling like an ant before its layers and layers and layers of guns.

Varynna is on her own ship, guiding the, now small-seeming, battleship through the void in a holding formation, unable to join as she prepares to go to war. A fleet gathers in the void around Macragge's Honour, hundreds of ships and with more to join as the warfleet pushes through hostile systems.

Landing in the bay, the doors slip open and blue-armoured Astartes await the two women, crackling vox-communicators activating as they speak, "An audience with Primarch Guilliman was requested. Follow." Booming tones controlled by the helmet.

With a squeeze of Anastasia's hand, Lilith had fire raging inside of her. Finally, someone at the head of all this… Awfulness. A single point that she could talk too and figure out how they live with themselves. Ana's hand was soft in her own, but she couldn't stand everything she had seen so far. Not in Ana's thoughts when she drifted to the empire. Not in Varynna's thoughts, when she thought no-one noticed her drifting back. Not in the looks of fear in the eyes of almost everyone she meets, fear of something, fear of their own society. It made her sick, but… She couldn't stop thinking about the burns. The clean burn of being purified by light. By being touched by something far more powerful than herself.

It was a feeling she was familiar with, an… Innate part of how she felt about people. She was always chasing those who seemed stronger, more capable… Better. Whatever… Energy Celestine seemed to run on gave her a taste of something… Different. For lack of a better word, she found it sexy, but wholesome.

Ana held Lilith's hand, and felt a pang of nerves. The tiny woman just spoke, without trepidation for better or worse. Lord Guilliman, at least to her, did not seem to be one who she should just speak too thoughtlessly. Though she thought the same of Varynna. Now without thinking, maybe without even being aware of what she was committing too, she was taking trillions of Zerg through the Warp, through chaos systems, to retake a planet she had never even seen. For a woman she knew for less than two hours. She still couldn't decide if it was hopelessly romantic, or exceedingly stupid. Though rarely were the too very far apart

Its a surprisingly spartan chamber. A bed with only the barest obeisance to luxuries in its blue and gold coloured sheets, a simple desk, luxurious merely due to being suited for his size and the quality of its construction. Bare floors, bare walls and a stand that could hold the armour he is currently in proving to be a central piece of the chamber.

"You have something to ask, allies?" He gently speaks, merely a rumbling engine rather than a burst of shellfire in the small quarters of the room. Mechanically augmented fingers putting down a pen.

With a quick glance to Ana, before stepping forward getting more comfortable leading without being a nuisance. "Something to give," Then realizing her reputation and behaviour, quickly added, "I meant our forces. We wish to lend our services to get you to Terra. I fully admit it's for selfish reasons however." The man looked like he appreciated one being straight forward, and honest. "Our people need planets, and most of the Chaos systems will likely need to be held. I've also grown… Attached to Saint Celestine and Varynna, I would rather not be a gadabout at home while there is work to be done." Quieter she admits, "I have no other duties left at this point."

Piercing blue eyes turn, "You hate this place, yet you will fight for it." There's something like wryness to him. Almost as if the demigod across from Lilith can relate.

"I will fight for the people in it, sir." Lilith says, with a deep breath, "I will fight for Celesti– Saint Celestine, For Lord Admiral Varynna, for my own people, for the Astartes arm wrestling at a ball." She looks to Anastasia, "For the… Astropaths who make me feel loved." Her jaw sets though as she thinks further on it, trying to get her mind together and explain. "I will fight for it's people, not necessarily it's… System." The venomous word caused Ana to give a bone-crushing grip on Lilith's hand, and a quiet hiss in Lilith's mind to be polite. To think.

"Good." Its a simple and solid declaration as he keeps searching for something in Lilith, seeing as much, if not more than any Zerg ever could, "Duty, Honour, all that pales in comparison to the drive of the heart. Loyalty, borne of love of any stripe. That is what will see us through." A surprising statement from one that seems so entrenched in the dogma of this place, practically worshipped by everyone who casts their eyes upon him.

"You hate this galaxy because it is decayed, rotten. You hate it because there are glimmers of something greater beneath the corpse that now sits, bloated and twisted atop those foundations we built." He turns fully from his desk, giving every inconceivably sharp ounce of focus he can on the two women, "But tell me this, do you want it burnt to ashes?"

"There's gotta be somewhere in between burning it to ashes and living in misery. I want people happy, or at least… Happier. I'd want to just… Get people to understand each other better, and hope that does good." Then, that fire roars in her gut, something… Manic, that steel that Varynna mentioned, the obsession that Ana felt the wild… Feeling. Something about the Light that made it more focused. "If it seemed like that was the only way, and at the end of the pyre people were living safe and happy somehow though… I'd do it. I wouldn't want it, or feel good about it, but I'm starting to feel a certain way about the people I keep meeting."

"When I awoke." Guilliman answers, "I had thoughts much the same, perhaps even darker. I begged an unanswering sky for answers all the same. I asked, I demanded it show me that my life." The first beginnings of a frown fall on his face, "Had not been lived in vain, that this was not all I had built come to roost."

"It was only by that same Saint that I dragged my mind out of the pit, and settled myself for the truth." The energy returns to the Primarch, something like drive but inviolable, a will that will change the galaxy or die trying. "It is not the place of leaders to condemn their people no matter their mistakes, those like us must push forth, salvage the lost dream, build again, no matter the cost, the peace must be remade."

With a brimming smile, that probably was inappropriate for the situation she realized, she said. "That's one of the first hopeful things I've heard in a while… I think. How long had it been? Between when you slept, and when you woke?"

"My brother's blade took my throat in the thirtieth millennium." The Primarch answers, looking distantly for less than a tenth of a second, "We are in the forty-first now."

"Since our… Abilities seem to function very similar to yours, I think we're from the second." Lilith says, looking at Anastasia. "Things were… How did it get like this?

"The sky has no answer for us." Guilliman speaks firmly, "My father…he must have something, anything at all. Else this truly all falls on us alone."

Remembering Ana's memory, the skeleton of leathery skin and plumbing, "Have… You… Seen him in any way, recently." Trying to approach it very delicately.

He nods, "I observed him when the Golden Throne first jabbed into his dying body. I know he lives in cursed half-death. I do not need his speech." A grim tone emanates from the Primarch, "He is to me as I am to a normal man. All I need is his excuse, for all this. The reason in all his power he allowed this." Something like rage sparks and is ruthlessly disarmed by a honed mind. "And if he cannot provide. I will march forwards without the old man."

"Are…" Lilith takes a deep breath, then exhales, "Are you prepared for the possibility that he didn't allow it? That he couldn't stop it? He's…" Then she stopped, this must be twelve kinds of sacrilege.

"That nothing remains of my father after ten thousand years? That the husk on the Throne is a mad skeleton, possessed of world shaking power?" The Primarch finishes the thought.

She nods, quietly, "Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw Ana's… Memory."

He points to a statuette, it is a hand-made replica of Saint Celestine, carved carefully in salvaged rock-crete. "A guardsman's statuette, carved by a combat knife in a battlefield somewhere I couldn't fathom. That, is my hope. My father has enough presence to craft defenders. He still has the mind to love Mankind." Turning his gaze away from the statuette to a double headed eagle on the wall, "And if that is all that remains of him, it will be enough."

Lilith bites her talon suddenly, very aware of how much she related with Guilliman, not romantically for once, but just knowing he too cared made him seem… Worthy… Of something she didn't know what, respect? "I'd like my forces to get you there, any way we can, and every system we take we'll hold, so you can have an easy path back." Then quieter, "And help you if the Mechanicum gets… Do you have squirrels? Squirrely."

"Speak to Arch Magos Cawl if you wish to sense the Mechanicum's mood, I leave their management to hi-it." He rephrases at the last second, shaking his head, "And for your help, be aware. We fight through the forces of hell itself. Twisted magics and warp-wrought steel alike will be in our path. Many will die, likely including yourself." It's a firm warning, there's no doubt in his mind of the bloody toll this will extract.

"I…" She's quiet, biting her lip, knowing he knows but still once scared to speak her mind. "If… A man" She says very carefully, "Chooses to continue fighting, as long as they have breath, and about ten minutes, I can get them back up again. As I did Varynna."

"Few will accept that offer." Guilliman cautions.

"Then, the ones that do, have them pick a way to signal in some way, or… Keep them grouped in some way, or just… Relate to us in some way. Those that choose, are welcome, as long as they choose and it's not forced." Lilith gulps, "It would make me feel better knowing that those that died, even me, had every option presented." Then she looks to Ana, "But I'm willing to die for… God I was not like this a few years ago." She says quietly, "I'm willing to die for the few good people I met.

"If I had ten thousand like you, we'd have won already." The assurance is strange from this icon of the Imperium, as if a legend decided to look down and pick someone out from a crowd. "We set burn for Terra in an hour. I expect to arrive in a month."

"Saint… Celestine, and Varynna… Is it, are they on the same ship? If not, nevermind, but I don't know if you can ship hop in the warp? I want to spend the time with the people I've met." She said, quietly, looking at the floor.

"I would recommend the Herald, then. Saint Celestine is in this vessel, but she has no trouble moving where she wishes. Lord Admiral Varynna is mortal by comparison." He picks the pen up and continues scribing something as the conversation seems to be lulling.

She looks at Guilliman, studying him. She realized that whatever light shined from Saint Celestine, the Anastasia had felt, it was… nice, but nothing compared to the… Feeling she got when he made her want to follow. An odd sense of… It frustrated her that she couldn't put a finger on it. "I see why everyone likes you." Lilith says, quietly, before realizing. "There… May be a complication to, plan around, if possible. A bird, turned my Queen back to human. It repeated Truth at me, at first I thought it was talking about our love. When Saint Celestine and I talked, and she said the word. I could hear it cackle."

"Games of Daemons." The Primarch declares, "They always play them, up until they are dragged down by them. Do not pay it heed, for the doubt is what they wish to overcome you."

Lilith snorted at that, "Far greater things have tried," before realizing how arrogant she must sound. "I think, whatever it is, whatever they are, will find they have made a terrible mistake toying with my heart and those I love." That conviction is back, the fire. A devotion to something greater, but not the God Emperor necessarily, almost certainly not, but the light behind him. The light that made her feel right. "I uh… Didn't stick around to be braggadocious," really, five dollar word Lilith, "Who… Do you talk too? Normally I mean." She tries to hide the concern in her voice, hoping it doesn't seem… Patronizing.

"On what subject?" The Lord questions, curious as to where this goes.

"Like, just chat? Get drinks, read books?" Lilith asks curiously, not entirely sure either, just… Trying to figure him out. "You're very important to the Imperium I know, but everyone seems so shocked when they're treated like normal people. It… Makes me concerned… When I meet new ones."

"I speak mostly to myself." He smiles lightly at that, "I generally don't have a conversational partner for…leisure, anymore." Guilliman calmly admits, without a great worry or anything of the sort. "I slept in dream and nightmare for ten thousand years, I can bear a few years of focus and isolation."

What the fuck are you doing Lilith, "Well, what we can bear, and what we must bear are… Far apart. I know you can work a vox, I have one, Varynna, Celestine, and I will all be on the same ship. If you with to talk, you can of course it's an offer."

The Primarch nods, "Your kindness is appreciated. I will seek it out if I require it, Lilith Von Illar." An actual response, not just words to please Lilith. Still, it seems unlikely he will seek it out, from all accounts, Guilliman isn't one to lean on others.

"Well, I may want to call as well, if you're not busy. I know Varynna is very fond of you, we can just talk." She still was very unclear what she was doing, or why bring Varynna into it at all. Still, it was true, maybe if she called around similar times he'd make time.

Another nod as he focuses fully on his letter, "If I am free, I will always heed the call of those who follow me."

Then with an awkward courtesy that immediately felt incorrect in her leathery outfit, she said, "Well I'll call then, and we'll take our leave! I can't wait to see what happens when we win."

Then to Ana, in her mind she says, Ok, I get it about the light now. With a turn she moved to leave.

---

 

[the swarm]

Bit curiouse is anyone of the characters controlled by anyone except you and dapper and Zrug being a ultralisk
Edit: going through the whole backlog will take awhile

 

[Princess Scribe]

"I told Lord Guilliman you're fond of him, and he said we could call!" Lilith said brightly as Saint Celestine entered Varynna's quarters.

Varynna freezes, staring at Celestine, brain beginning to process exactly what was just said. "I…Lilith." Her voice is very calm and very, very collected. Naval uniform tight and studded with medals, a threatening sabre in a sheath.

"Also, Anastasia, Myself, and Celestine have been transferred to your ship." She added, staring at her for a reaction, keeping her face stony in case this was in fact a problem, that she caused. "We're going to be traveling for a month, I don't want to leave Ana my darling wife, I'm going to war for Celestine so we should spend more than a day together, and Guilliman seems nice, gave us permission to call, and not to mention I love you too, so… Seemed like your quarters or… Office… Dining room? I never asked what this is… Oh well… Would make a good home base!"

"And I will assure you, Lord Admiral!" The Saint speaks with care, "Warp travel is much safer with me aboard." Pulling the attention of everyone in the room as she starts to pick through the liquor cabinets, staring at the various options Varynna has.

"I see." Varynna growls, staring at Lilith again, "You are so very lucky Lilith."

Lilith bit her tongue with a smile, "Lucky that I'm cute?" She said, somewhat hopefully. "I did more social math than you might have thought, Varynna. I'm getting very good at this whole politics thing."

Ana lights up a lho stick for herself, making Celestine tilt her head, "Those are bad for you, Anastasia."

"We're like, immortal? If anything super bad happens, I just vent myself and go back to the hatchery." Lilith said, reaching for the pack, lighting her own.

"I suppose." She shrugs, pulling a wine bottle free as Varynna's eyes widen. "S-saint, no that's-!" Her shout is interrupted by Celestine drinking the entire bottle in one go. "Oh." Varynna quietly says.

"She… Sees Truth, that means she knows what was in that bottle… Right? Varynna what did she just drink?" Lilith now recalling a very vivid memory of herself swallowing a random pill off the floor during a rave in Tarsonis.

"Obscura." Celestine chuckles, falling backwards into a couch she barely fits on, "Very very illegal, Lord Admiral." Twisting to stare with golden eyes at Varynna, she confidently says, "You've been a bad girl." Varynna, to her credit, only stiffens a lot instead of freezing.

Lilith stops for a second, looking at Ana, "We tried that right? It was like… We had terrible shakes for hours after I think, but then I learned how to just cut that out?"

Ana smokes her lho deeply, breathing out the smoke as she stares at the slowly grinning Saint, "There were also the hallucinations, and…insatiability." As Celestine grabs another bottle of wine.

"I think… One of us needs to be able to infest the rest."

"Lilith, can I hold you up against the wall?" Celestine shakes the room with the simple request, now focusing on the aforementioned woman, giving Varynna a moment to breathe.

For her benefit, Lilith had only spent a few moments gawking like a fish, "I didn't think she'd run straight to the fucking… Orgy decanter." Lilith says suddenly, before also saying, "Yes."

"That's good." Celestine chuckles, not moving after the declaration with a cocky smile on her face. Ana starts to stand up.

"I think I just realized the game I've started, and am feeling very objectified right now." LIlith said with a weak smile as Anastasia approached, though nothing in her tone, or in swarm space registered as a complaint.

"Someone has to be uninvolved in this mess." Varynna declares, "So I suppose I'll be banished from my own quarters-."

"No, I'll go," Lilith says suddenly, "I can… Watch? Through Swarmspace. Then there's not any competing!" What are you doing?! I'm chickening out. WHY?! I… Don't know WHY!? They're all so hot. Also, this is how you got your last wife killed. Are you really worried about that?! YES!

"Liliiiiiiiiiiith." Celestine croons for the woman, vibrating the air with the noise, "Come to meeeeee." She extends her arms, awaiting an embrace with closed, spark-leaking eyes.

"Awww… She just wants to cuddle…" Lilith says quietly, immediately melting. Walking towards Celestine for a moment, "I mean…" She looks at Ana, "Cuddling is… Fine. Right?" Taking very nervous steps.

"You can hug other women Lilith." Ana declares with a smirk, "You've already done more with her anyways, right?" It's not heated, just curious.

"I asked in the hallway!" For once not a lie, "If I'm asking can I run off with a giant angel with wings who can throw me like a football. That's… Like… I told you that, in the ship quarters."

Rolling her eyes, Ana says, "Just making sure, I wasn't able to wat-" She freezes.

"I knew it." Lilith said smiling, "I knew you were a little freak." The voice was very, very kind. "But why weren't you able to watch?" She's still looking at Anastasia, walking backwards towards Celestine.

"The flash of light, mostly." Anastasia very carefully admits, the ruse finally up as Celestine's hands reach and pull Lilith back, almost ensconcing her with her leg and arms. "Mhmm, you're soft." The Saint mumbles, lips brushing against Lilith's ear.

"That… Was the very very end. Whu—" Lilith was suddenly extremely grateful for Zerg parts again that were far more flexible, and more importantly, durable. "Hmmm!" Lilith said, before squeaking like a chew toy.

Anastasia takes the opportunity to break line of sight, whilst Varynna goes back to getting her uniform just right for the voyage ahead. All the while Celestine keeps mumbling loudly, "I really like you."

Then suddenly aware of Ana breaking eye contact, Weren't able to watch because of light? Or Feelings? Lilith said, not pushing Celestine off, but also not going much further.

"Do you want me to let you go? For Ana?" Even through the haze, the Saint can see what others feel, asking with the gentle volume of a caring whisper.

"I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Varynna, and Ana." Lilith said very calmly, "I'm not comfortable being intimate while anyone is under the influence without discussing it first. It's very odd to me that this is a conversation I've had with every woman I've met in the imperium. Also odd that I haven't met a woman in the imperium who doesn't like me, but I will stow that paranoia for later."

"I'm more of a thoughtful wave than a woman." Celestine considers, "My body is light, if you were wondering." She flickers sparks from her fingertip, letting them fall on Lilith's arm.

"If you're made of light, how do you get… All fucked u—" Then she stops herself, "I'm going to extricate for now we have a month. You have a day to un-Obscura so we can talk or plan that first."

"I'm a being of light, Lilith." Celestine glows, a shuddering feeling passing through anyone the light touches, "I can just purge it." She smirks, looking confidently at the other woman.

"You're so mean." Lilith says but not unkindly, before looking at Ana, "Do you and I need to have a talk?

"I don't mind you with other women Lilith, I think." Ana says, "I just…don't enjoy watching, I realize."

"Oh." Lilith says, then looking to Varynna, "You know I was thinking board games, but I guess I have a reputation at this point don't I?"

"Certainly have." Varynna chuckles, properly fitting her medals, "I'd recommend avoiding my drinks, and using the games under the cupboard, they're tame."

Not… quite annoyed, but also not overly pleased either Lilith said, "It's very… Odd to me, that I seem to be very clear on my wants." She says, walking over to the cupboard, hoping to god to find actual games or picts. "I do not think any of you, besides maybe Ana are entirely understanding of the fact that I'm truly not trying to bed everyone." She sighs, opening the cupboard, and sure enough, they were not board games of the traditional kind, before closing it.

"I am lonely." She says, openly, "I walked into a hivemind, because I am lonely, my physical needs are… There's no… Max there lets say, but I do need a bare minimum of affection to exist." She's not even entirely sure who she's speaking too. She guess she was a little annoyed. "I'm trying to make a family, not a harem."

"This feels like my fault." Celestine wonders from her couch.

"Not entirely, no, it's actually a talk I wanted to have with everyone, but I've been trying to avoid big speeches. I'm rather preachy" Lilith admits, "But also a little bit that was a move for sure."

Ana's quietly contemplating the words and Varynna is fixing her neck piece, leaving mostly Celestine to answer for now.

"Not really, I was shocked not surprised if that makes sense." Lilith adds, not lying. "You're not at fault for anything. I kind of realized what I had done, and been signaling far too late."

"Could you come back, once you find a game?" The Saint asks, shifting to allow more space, "I can't promise I won't tease, but, I enjoy holding others."

"Oh!" Lilith said suddenly, "I just assumed…"

---

Lilith the buzz kill.

Can you calm down, you're too intense

Gleaming steel.

Cuts.

Splash of blood.

Alone.

---

"I made an incorrect assumption, my bad, sorry."

"We all make those. Now, stop letting me get cold." She reaches out a grasping limb to try and grab at Lilith, just a little too far even for her size.

Am I strong enough too… Lilith thought to herself before, grabbing her arm and realizing that No she was not strong enough to overpower Celestine into a princess carry as she fell back into a teasing cuddle.

---

Don't you love me? Why would you do this? That was my tuition…

Of course I love you! But I needed rent.

slice - butcher - disperse

I adore you Lilith, can you take this package for me, don't worry what's in it.

Are you sure? The last one….

You got out fine, don't worry about it.

slice - butcher - disperse

You're the best Lilith, but actually something better came up. Sorry.

What do you mean something better?

I mean you're moving. You freak me the fuck out.

slice - butcher - disperse

---

"Unforgivable curs." A growled word from the Saint brings the whole room to a chilling stop. Anger like a flare, coating every surface with her feelings, forcing reality to acquiesce to what she feels. Even the air warbles with her, falling under Celestine's will.

"All of them. Betrayers." Another rumbled word as Lilith fully blinks back out of the moment.

With a big smile that doesn't reach her eyes Lilith says, "Oh. You see Truth with like… A capital T." She huffs, "That's been happening lately. No-one should see that! I cut it out from the swarm! Completely!"

---

Hey look, do you want to eat tonight?

Yeah…

Then take the fucking gun. Go.

Sorry…

It's ok, I'm sorry. I'm trying to look out for you because I love you.

---

"I am not the Swarm." The Angel answers Lilith, "Your pain. The pain of every human in this universe." Celestine calms her voice, moving back to something soft, almost whispered echoes. "It is why I fight. To stop it all. I'm truly sorry I couldn't save you." She holds Lilith lovingly, deeply.

---

You chose to be Queen. Anastasia chose to stay. Everyone… Everyone picked me. I have a family.

Yes. We do.

Is… Kerrigan going to hug me? Oh. Oh. Even after all that… I Just want a hug. Why do I always have to ask?

She snatched at her to be the small spoon in a cuddle as she latched on.

---

Lilith is… Dissociated, completely separated with a look that's just a bit quiet, and dead. Though she knows to keep smiling.

"Anastasia. Come here." A request, but one she'd be a fool to not follow.

---

My dream, lovely Is one day, this isn't just a beautiful dream. It's… real. The both us, real. And I can be there, forever.

Well… Too late for that Manth… Sorry.

---

Another person enters Lilith's space, smaller, proportional to her. "Love. Tell me what to do." Anastasia asks.

---

I know that you almost didn't. It doesn't matter, because you chose me, and that's all I ever wanted.

But do you choose me? Or am I just available
I will always choose you. You are… everything to me.

Oh… You still won't say it back…

She… hugged you? And you fell for her? That's all I had to do? I didn't have to seduce you at all!

Yes… It's literally that easy. Just… Please.

Keep hugging me, and telling me I'm good, great even. Tell me my feelings are valid.

You are my perfect, great, beautiful wife. I love everything about you.

Why do I always have to ask…

---

Has anyone ever told you, Lilith, that you are beautiful?

Twice… No, once.

She told me I'm beautiful. I didn't have to ask…

---

"Hold her." A command from the divine woman gives Ana direction. Warmly wrapping around her love. "I love you Lilith." She says, "Please be alright." She begs.

"Ana?" Lilith said, blinking, "What's wrong? Come here, I'm sorry. I must have… Got a bit distracted."

Ana looks scared, holding Lilith desperately at the command of the Saint. "You are loved, Lilith. You are cared for." There's no room to brook argument with Celestine, she speaks with only truth. "Grasp the world, change it, for your heart cannot bear suffering silently." Ana's obviously not understanding, only one half of the conversation involving her.

"Don't worry about it Ana." Lilith whispers, "I love you and I know you love me."

---

No, you won't. Not when I've started to like you.

I think… It might be too late… I ca-

It's a trick, there's points involved. Your Queen is in danger.
But, Lilith, the world is not simply others. The dread for others is blinding you.

It's a trick, you should be mad that she's using this against you

Fuck

---

"Feel, remember, overcome." Celestine gently encourages, "You are strong, I know it." Holding both women at this point, a staunch, glowing fortress to hold onto, if anyone will reach out.

"Tell me how to help." Ana whispers, either to the Saint or her love.

---

Manth loves me, they seeked me out. Of course Manth loves me. They must, they chose me, they saved me and asked for nothing. I just need to keep some thoughts away from the swarm. Just a little twinge

Oh. Manth is dead. Kerrigan is dead again. I killed them.

---

"Kerrigan is dead… I killed her." Lilith whispered again. "Twice. Why does that bother me? It shouldn't." She squeezed Ana, harder, so hard that she felt her own muscles crack. She couldn't help but taste blood. Blood or pennies or steel. She had managed to kill everyone who had ever hurt her. Everyone. Why was she upset. She was here, and they were not. It shouldn't matter past that.

"I love you Ana I'm fine. Sorry, I think this is my second breakdown in a week." She said quietly, "I'll recover, I think. I bounce back pretty fast."

---

 

[Princess Scribe]

Something's off. Varynna senses it in an instant as minute alterations of course make the hairs on her neck rise up in a crawl. Immediately, she's on a vox, "Navis, why have we shifted course."

"Damnit!" She moves to the doorway, rushing quickly out to the hall.

Lilith, leaps to her feet, extending into a fully mobile form. "What is it?" She asks, wiping her tears away. An upper body, a spinal column, and dozens of legs.

The Saint blinks, "Something is…off." She glares at the shuttered windows that block the Warp from infecting anyone indoors. "We are being moved." A harsh declaration, "We must make it to the Teleportarium!" Immediately, wings flare, armour collapses on her, and a blade forms.

Lilith snatches Anastasia, and gets ready to sprint after the saint, "Sorry, you don't run as fast. Varynna fights." She says calmly. Forcing everything into the dead channel. Letting herself feel giddy at the thought of new violence.

Following the Saints nigh-impossible pace, the ships halls are eaten up in the advance until finally, pushing a door open with her shoulder, steel broken open like paper. Inside, a vast machine rumbles and ripples with blue and red light, big enough to fit a house in its central chambers.

"Servant of the Machine! I command you, send me to Macragge's Honour!" The demand rattles the glass of the room as she flies into the centre, slamming her blade into the metal below and kneeling in the machine, reducing her profile. The Tech Priest in command freezes, looking at the other two here, not sure if he should wait or not.

Before The Saint can decide for her she latches on next to her with Ana by her side. Varynna wouldn't leave the ship anyways, Guilliman would face the largest of the fighting force, or… Her eyes flick back and forth but before she could change her mind the Tech Priest begins.

Pulling a switch with the sound of a transformer shutting down. Flickering lightning catches the skins of all three women, not painful, just terrifying before, in a sudden absolute flicker of all reality, they are dragged across false-space and translate into somewhere else.

Standing, tearing her blade from the hull of the new vessel. Celestine growls at the sights of crewmen forming hasty defensive lines as cawing horrible noise comes from hallways and ventilation around this secondary bridge. "Heed me armsmen, where is Lord Guilliman!"

A commanding officer manages to get his thoughts together enough to answer, "In the bridge! Battling boarders!" Instantly, Celestine flexes her wings and begins the journey through bulkheads above, only a split second to grab onto her.

"Ana, the soldiers know not to shoot the Swarm, you've got further Range, tell them to get in here." Lilith demands as she does her best in her spidery form to follow Celestine.

The internals of a ship are old, rusty and full of oil. Difficult to navigate if not for the blinding light of an angel. Its merely a minute to cross the belly of this warmachine and emerge through the floor, finding Celestine already blade deep in an armoured traitor Astartes.

Chaos infests the bridge, dozens of Astartes in blue and red armour slaughtering crewmen whilst loyalists try and marshall a fighting force. In the centre, a double-headed bird stands, staring down at the Primarch as chains that reek of guilt bind around him, holding him fast.

Fucking finally. Lilith whispers looking at the bird. "You! You ruined everything." She was in a blind rage as she placed Ana down gently. Before leaping into the fray of Astartes with a blood lust and efficiency she had crafted over two decades. Sequencing over and over and over, to make herself Abathur's perfect project. Channeling the love he had for her, knowing if Kerrigan was good, then she surpassed her. That she refused to let these pathetic Terrans stop her. Zerg Steel and Acid, a proven effect weapon fires from inside like shotgun blasts, as she slips like slinky water between legs and over armor, before a knife-like tendril appears in her hand, and she will carve Into the bird, all of her tendrils will carve.

This bird would die, She would fucking eat it.

The battle is brutal, Astartes realizing Lilith's threat as they turn, forcing her to battle them head on, slipping past armour as acid coats their helmets and blinds them, zerg infection and simple trauma mixing to drive them to their knees, and then to be ripped into by hungry blades.

"Imagine betraying the imperium just before they got ever-lasting life. Imagine being so used by masters who don't care about you." She screamed still trying to slice into the bird with tendrils. "Turn your guns on yourselves, it will be far kinder than what I will do." She whips around a blade trying to land it into the Daemon's neck rage, pure and simple consuming her.

A ripple of warp-force is her barrier as the invisible shield around the Daemon and the Primarch holds fast, pushing Lilith away in a blast that has her rolling back to her feet. "You will choose." One head turns to her, staring into Lilith with the almost-mocking words. "Wrong." The second head croons before cackling as the Primarch struggles against the glowing mystic chains.

Something like cloth tearing hits Lilith's ears as a presence falls over the bridge. Something truly monstrous. Clinking mail, plates of metal, twinned axes and demonic red skin is the first details as a colossal monster pushes through a portal. Horned like an ancient myth and easily twice the size of the Saint it stands before. It's digitigrade legs preparing to charge her.

Lilith smiles at the Daemon mocking her, "The ships had warp shields too," Allowing acid and mutalisk spines to fire into the Daemon.

Acid slips through and covers the Daemon with a hiss and a cry of pain on its vast part, all the while, a clash of blades takes place behind as Celestine is forced to lock weapons with the beast, barely able to hold it back in the contest of strength.

She can handle herself, "Ana, help her!" She yells as the warp shield flickers, just enough to slip through. "Oh… Hi." Lilith said her eyes bright with joy. This time not stopping as every blade descends on the bird, trying to steal every bit of essence, every piece of it. To watch it know that its life force was being stolen.

The creature does not idly sit and let itself be torn into, flickers of force blocking strikes whilst other, odd angled ones slip through, catching at feathers and skin. In this melee, however, its attention is broken, and with that, chains crack. Suddenly, it is broken inwards by a powerful armoured fist that lands in the middle of its monstrous, bent back.

A distraction that lets Lilith fall upon it.

Lilith leaps onto it with glee, her blades, carving and slicing taking chunks, a small orb appearing underneath it that continues to fill, as she does so she gets uncomfortably close to where she thinks it's ear is. "You die today, your masters are next." Before jamming a tendril into the side of its head. She grabs a handful of feathers as a trophy. Her joy, her victory is stolen from her as she reaches to stomp on the ball of essence, a portal splits open and she notices tendrils of it flying back into the body. She spits into it just as the portal closes.

With disgust at the portal, but then concern, "Primarch my lord, on your feet. The battle will be won, you'll want to be there when it is." She uses all of her strength to try and lift the giant man. "To think, we'll have so much to talk about on our call." She tries to settle him, but the sound of battle behind her is distracting. She whirls around seeing Celestine fight. She tries racing for her but it's too late, she's too far away.

Celestine is embattled. The Daemon's axes stumbling her with each blow. She raises her sword in a quick parry, catching the axe-hafts and slicing through them. Still, the Daemon proves despite its rage-filled appearance and foaming mouth to be a dangerous foe as it tackles through her guard, ramming her to the earth.

With a flex of wings, she attempts escape, but is caught by its grip. With a roar of effort and breaking ligaments, the wings are freed from their bearer, the Saint screams, turning the pain to furious rage as she twists.

"ANA GRAB HER!" Lilith is sprinting, spring with all her might.

"I CAN'T! THE DAEMON REJECTS ME!" She screams back, nose bleeding like a faucet from the effort of trying to do anything.

She won't let this end here, she can't, she slides on tendrils each one firing her forward in bursts like a slingshot. Spines firing the entire time. The Daemon, grumbling in a tone of distaste, swings a fist and forces Lilith to alter her course, sliding underneath it as spines sink into its ultra-dense skin. Celestine, eyes wide and face enraged, summons her blade in a flicker of flame and rams it into the chest of the creature, stilling both warriors for a moment.

Yet, it does not die. The Daemon reaches forth with both arms, clasping at Celestines head.

Trying to taunt the daemon, use their tactics against them she screams, "Did you know when a Zerg kills you, you Truly die Daemon."

"Good." It answers, voice poisoning the air, inflaming rage and death and bloodlust everywhere as the stomp of a Primarchs charge nears. In a vicious twist, Celestine falls into light.

"Where the FUCK is my swarm." Lilith roared, before leaping, at the Daemon. Reaching out to it in Swarm Space, demanding, the ENTIRE Swarm focus on tearing this creature apart.

She impacts it and starts to dig in, talons, teeth and rage having far more effect than bolts and spines ever did, and within seconds, is assisted by the Primarch, a blade splitting open the Daemon's side. It fights with fury and rage, every injury seemingly not slowing it down as it breaks Lilith, forcing her to heal and adapt faster and faster whilst the Primarch tries to match its muscle, to slow it down, injured as it is, he is managing.

Lilith tries to snatch out at it's essence, rip it out as Abathur has done to many. Swiping at it's essence the way she swiped at Kerrigan, at Ana, the way she was taught. The essence of the Daemon, glowing and bright is suddenly ripped from the body. She tears the thread, working on it, hacking at strings of it's very being. The code, the soul being torn apart.

Paradoxically, the Essence calms as this happens, trying to accept its fate, seeing the end as…desired. But as it falls apart, as it tears to pieces, something reaches out and tears it back to someplace, with cruel intentions and vicious hatred, even as the soul wishes to stay here.

With a roar, she demands, with the psychic voice of her Ur-Sequencer. "That is MINE NOW!" and SLAMS her sequencers into the soul trying to pin it, tear at it faster. Slicing now at the essence of the hand itself that is grabbing. "YOU TRADE YOUR LIFE FOR ITS!"

The hand, the limb, the enormity of what she just attacked is in half-shadow revealed to her. Something incoherently large and vast and godly. Boiling with rage that could crack worlds and with violence which has.

"Whatever you are! You should be scared!" She yells at the planet sized entity, "If you ARE NOT, THEN YOU ARE UNPREPARED." Then, to spite this thing, she tears a large piece of the remaining essence of its prize. Destroying the daemon that took from her, proving to even the gods that what is hers. Is HERS. Then eats it in front of it trying to find EYES to make it watch.

It doesn't spare her a second after that, moving to its business, treating her like an ant. Boiling rage builds, worse than she's ever felt, worse than anything, overpowering loneliness, love, hate, for a brief moment, all Lilith feels is the red fury of the Essence, the absolute pinnacle of feeling channeled merely to hatred.

A feather lands in her hand.

No… She thinks, the feather held. One white, to match the fist full of purple one's she stole. No. She reaches down cradling the body of Celestine. Another fucking Love stolen by fucking birds. The body is smaller than she was. Merely human, with scars and injuries, blood on her lips, hollow eyes and armour that seems less peerless than before, skin with flaws, hair matted with sweat. Mortal.

"Oh…" Lilith realizes, "Oh you're not pure light… You're… Coming back." There's conviction, as she reaches out, and takes a second pinkie to match with Kerrigan's. Her lovers would remain with her always, as she places it inside the tangle of limbs in her chest next to her heart. Feeling, slightly warmer. A little bit of gold dripping out of her own ribcage.

"I could have infested you…" She whispered, "But I'm immortal, I can wait for you to come back as you are." She touched the woman's head to hers. "You'll be back. You'll be back. I gotta go, I'm still a heroine after all." She drops the body, and searches for the next place to help. She fires spines and acid at the things approaching her Primarch. Reaching down for one of the Chaos Astartes weapons firing it as well.

The battle dies down, the Primarch clashes through the remaining opposition like a god of war, loyalists surrounding traitors and the bridge being retaken with the efforts of Lilith and the practical army here. As everything calms, the white feather shifts in Lilith's hand, tugging a direction before stilling.

Find me.

"I promised to wait for you, I have other promises to keep." Lilith said crying, to the feather, talking to it as if Celestine was there. "My promises to everyone else are important too." She's pleading with it begging it to forgive her, "You… You wouldn't want me to find you… You'd want me to get our Primarch to Terra. I'll keep the feather ok? You can give me words of encouragement." That too is placed into her ribcage next to her heart. "I hate birds." She whispers.

---

"Primarch, what are the words you say when an Angel dies. I can't think of anything to say." Lilith says weeping, holding Celestine to her chest. She can't believe it was so fast.

"There are none." Guilliman may have had a flicker of emotion pass over him, but it was crushed under the stony mask of duty.

"I keep forgetting you don't come back." She admits, "I keep looking and thinking, oh it's just a minute, she'll be right back but she won't. It was so fast. I didn't have time, did I?" She's not really, talking to Guilliman now. "She called me beautiful, I didn't have to ask." There's a pain inside her that she can't let go, as the tears grow and and— She stops.

She stands. She takes a deep breath, she couldn't… Break down like this anymore. It was a waste of time. She had switches. Turn it off. She very quickly reached into her own essence with a sequencer, but she didn't know where to put the knot. So… She left it, and simply ignored it.

Lilith looks to Guilliman quietly. "At your orders Primarch." Chaos would burn for this.

A weight falls over the Primarch, the crushing weight of Imperium. Yet he bears it, the stony mask of duty not cracking yet. "We burn to Terra. Our crusade is not finished."


"After we win, I would like you to tell me stories of her. I don't have any." Lilith whispers, letting a single tear out. "It will be fun." The voice does not sound like it will have fun ever again. Then she reaches out, and with a new found strength hefts the Saint's giant sword easily.

"I only know a few. But they will be told." As he watches the blade flicker with flames at the touch, a scalding comfort spreading from it, like an echo of the Saint.

"Does it go… Into a statue or…?" Lilith says as she looks at the sword, sheathing it.

"She will want it returned. I'd keep hold of it." The Primarch answers as the bridge comes to life again, preparing .

With a nod, Lilith uses a piece of herself to attach the giant sword to her five foot frame, finding a way to accomodate it. "I will have to sequence myself a bit taller unfortunately. I'll be in my Behemoth, if you do not need me at this time."

Guilliman nods, dismissing Lilith.

The carrier allowed the Behemoth to rest inside, where Lilith's home was. Where Anastasia was. Where the Evolution Pool that she borrowed from Abathur was. She quickly laid her sequencer along the length of the blade. Saying nothing to Anastasia. With a data pad she measured it, then herself. Her torso, arms, and legs. All carefully measured. "Call Abathur… For me Anastasia?" She asked quietly, looking away.

Moments later, a deep rumble as Abathur spoke through the Astropath, said, "Project Lilith."

"Ur-Sequencer Abathur. Devouring Daemon Essence, permanently stronger." She says quietly, "Need to use larger weapon. Emotionally distressed. Guide through sequencing. Measurements," She rattled off a long list of Leg, Arm, Torso, and other numbers. She would be bigger now. In more ways than one.

"Apologies for… Breaking Greatest Achievement." Lilith says quietly, "I'm… Sorry."

"Magnum Opus. Not Queen of Blades." The Ur Sequencer said, "Project Lilith Adapt. Build Social Networks. Plan."

That was the nicest thing Abathur had said to possibly anyone outside of the Overmind. Maybe even including him. Lilith took the compliment with grace, as Ana acted as a connection between the two. She made herself far larger so that she could carry more. She was now taller than Ana, Her many tendrils and Sequencers had been improved with more aggressive muscle, more efficient ligaments, no longer needing to be an unthreatening diplomat, she shook off the shackles of seeming… Approachable. She permanently sequenced both fingers, and both feathers inside of herself. Cracking her neck after multiple hours. She kissed Anastasia.

"We won, by the way. It just cost a lot." She said it to Abathur, and he disconnected, knowing that his Magnum Opus was bettering the Swarm.

 

[Princess Scribe]

Dapper and I have a second fic going here:

[CWOD] The Vampire and The Chronomancer: Now, Then, and Forever Mature - Modern - Romance

CW: Suicide, Sex Tags: Lesbian Vampires, Language, Gore, Explicit Sex (Co-Written with @Dapperlad1 ) Katherine is many things, an ex-cop, a photographer, in love with a vampire, suspended without pay, but there's one thing she isn't and that's stuck in time. Every time Katherine dies, she goes...

forums.sufficientvelocity.com

If you like the writing, love insane polyamorous lesbians, and would like something a bit more serious and less cartoony it's a very good read.

 

[Princess Scribe]

War came to a hundred systems. The Swarm and Imperium united in a viciously violent purpose. Great guns break fleets in newborn stars of violence and explosives, worlds burn or are consumed, the chaotic horrors on the ground below reduced to ash or meat depending on who got there first.

---

Celestine,

Well, you're dead, and I don't know how to catch you up to speed. So I'm writing letters, today was our first system taken in the war since your death it's… Fun, but I miss you. I have placed your feather next to my heart, but you need to shut up while I'm fighting. Guilliman has taken to letting me call him, Ana and I are still on the Rage of Mercury with Varynna the chats are nice. He seems… Sad, most of the time. He doesn't show it. Lord Admiral has also given us free reign of the ship, and Ana has been intensely curious about the Astartes, her angels. Not sure what she sees in them exactly, but I've never enjoyed the company of men. Well most men…

I miss you. You've been dead a day and it eats me up. I feel like it's my fault, I should have done… Something different, I don't know what. The Primarch being dead or worse ransomed would have been ruinous but I sacrificed you for it. I guess I'm truly a soldier of the Imperium now. There's more fighting to be had soon, but I love you. Ana says Hi. Also met a cute guard, she's nice.

xoxoxo
-Lilith von Illar

---

Celestine,

More days, more systems. I've been fighting with Guilliman, I thought the Astartes and guards would be freaked out with me in all Xeno'd out but they seem grateful for something that can past warp shielding. The cute guard's name is Lila, and she's an Officer, so Ana and I have been going on double dates with her at the Officer's bar. I know you'd think it's ok because you'd tell me to follow my heart I think, I can't wait to show you my trophies. I've been picking up cool rocks and things from the different systems we've tak

sorry in the middle of writing this one, we got rammed by Chaos, but we ended up winning out in the end. Lilia and I are kind getting hot and heavy. She's really nice, I can't wait for you to meet her.

xoxoxoxo
-Lilith von Illar

---

Celestine,

We've taken many systems now, but I'm losing count. Lila is dead now. I offered to infest them, and they preferred to fight at the side of their god emperor. Of their fucking rotting god, made of bones and metal. I hate them. I have killed my second Extremis since I've started fighting Chaos, and while I still enjoy battle, I'm finding myself getting lost at times afterwards. Noises are starting to bother me greatly, and when it is quiet I can hear the sound of battle in my ears. It's probably nothing though. Your feather now cries constantly to come find you, I know it can't be you anymore. They know the swarm is a threat.

They don't know hearing your voice only gives me strength. I will return to you.
Regards,
-Lilith von Illar

---

I almost died. I got so close to dying this time, they broke through the backline and got to the Behemoth I think they're targeting me now, I had to activate my own Thanatomanic drive so that I could slice myself. I've learned that it's guilt about what I could have done for you that gets me. I think I could have done… Maybe it would have been better if I chose you instead of Guilliman. I would have been happier.

I'm fighting with Anastasia now, she's not happy with me. I think she's not jealous so much as scared. She has to cease being as they tried to steal her instead of kill her this time.

---

This is how Chaos plans to haunt me. Guardsman or Astartes who catch my affection die within hours if not days. Ana now dies, is stolen, or worse forcing me constantly to choose between her or Guilliman. This war has damaged me. I have killed my third Extremise. I long for either rest or death. I am not entirely sure anymore what the difference would be. We almost have reached Terra.

---

I now spend my days alone, to protect the the remaining soldiers of the imperium. I ask for affection from Ana, but it's stiff and cold. I know she blames me too. Everyone blames me. Terra has heard of the swarm and demanded that I stay far away with my dreaded abhumanity. Only Varynna brings me comfort anymore, but this campaign is wearing on her as well.

Celestine I am so tired, I long for positive touch of any kind, it does not come. The only joy I have left is death, and even that is beginning to feel hollow and empty. It's only been a month. Am I so weak?

---

Fourth extremis, twenty three deaths Lilith, fourty six deaths Ana

---

Ana no longer speaks to me twenty seven deaths Lilith, Fifty-two deaths Ana

---

Chaos try to take Swam Systems behind us. They failed. thirty-one deaths Lilith, sixty-seven deaths Ana

---

Your feather now screams at me. Calls me a bastard, a whore, a fool, a coward. Unworthy of love because I will not look for you. They are most likely right. I've lost count of the deaths now.

---

Terra soon, last fight, will be the worst.

---

The Primarch takes to the field, always, whenever there is hope for the world, he is heading the assault, cleansing Chaos with blade and fury. The now powerful form of Lilith swinging her own flaming sword always nearby, where the fighting is thickest. Its on schedule, the prescient prediction of one month almost exactly on track.

In that final jump, nerves rise amongst all here as Terra beckons, the Zerg feeling something overwhelming nearing, a power that stretches past the world, past the system and glares down at all who approach. A golden light, tyrannical or protective depending purely on whom sees it.

In a jolt, the ships fall out of Warp to see Sol. The home of mankind. The star burns brightly, a haze of thousands of ships in space around it like dots of black on its colossal visage, Mars in the distance, magnified by sensors lurks with a massive, interlocking series of iron rings rotating around it whilst Terra, Earth, is a solid wall of city, grey and gold and black mixing in continent plates of society, not one ounce of green left anywhere on it.

Lilith can't help but balk, Look what the Terrans have done to their home. She pushed down the disgust. Of course they did. Knowing that it would not be Ana who reached for her she simply reached out and hugged Ana with a deep seated unwellness as she stared at it. I wonder if Chaos fears us yet… They will soon I imagine. Lilith didn't talk much after the death of Celestine. War was exhausting, Anastasia had never been taught or allowed to learn how to take the role of support, or comfort, and Lilith gave the aura of steel rebar creaking dangerously. A taught destructive forces moments away from snapping. Varynna, would have been able to help most likely, but she was on her own ship, fighting alongside them.

When she saw Varynna again, she wondered if she would still see Lilith. She thought of her eyes, that knew her. That cut her up into slices and scanned them. Lilith would wait, the Feather in her chest whispers, Come Find Me, but now she knows that is a Chaos Trick. Celestine was a Saint. She would never beg. That too, she wondered about, as she literally chewed and supped through Chaos forces, whether they knew they only brought their destruction sooner with these tricks.

She spent much time polishing Celestine's blade, mostly because of the comfort and the warmth provided. Similar enough to a hug that it filled the space. The blaze of it, she knew would keep her comfortable. Chaos corrupted in many ways, she then knew, that she hadn't known before. Chaos also had uses. The blade however, only gave her comfort, and she knew it was pure.

"I'm going to ask Guilliman to let me accompany him." Lilith said to Anastasia, her voice flat and even. Then looking down with a smile, "Don't worry, I'll be less morose after this. I don't trust Terrans. I think I'm one of the strongest things that could be by his side right now."

"I trust you." Ana answers simply, still worried for Lilith, but accepting of her drive.

"I love you too," She said smiling, not really listening, forcing herself to hear the words she wanted to hear. She learned the pretty truths could work both ways with conviction. She gave Ana a kiss on the head. "Thank you." Guilliman probably knew already. He thought. He planned. She hadn't realized stretching herself with so little biomass would hurt for a while. She wasn't… Thick… Like the other Saint's or Battle Sisters. She was drawn out and lanky, like Leather stretched across scaffolding affixed by chewing gum.

The fleets gather around the Throneworld of Mankind, the vast planetary defensive grids aiming at the fleet just in the terrifying fear that they may be traitors. The shuttles gather, preparing to take those who must go to the holiest of holies down. Lilith's opportunity is now. A vox caster looms within the Behemoth.

"I am surprised Primarch, you truly do always answer if free." Very simple, to the point. "It's Lilith von Illar, I wish to accompany you." She had been calling him two or three times a week now. Mostly to chat, sometimes about Celestine, sometimes about the imperium. Something to just… Say something to someone new. "I will


The Primarch looks as if the fury of a month of war had not touched him. As if blood and death and battle on a scale most have never seen is just the norm. He answers just as he would have answered thirty days ago, steady, "The High Lords are insensate your Swarm was allowed near the system, Lady."

With a small smile, Lilith says, "That sounds like a yes, Primarch."

Through the stone of his gaze, a slight flicker of bemusement forms, "You'll be the one listening to their jabbering. I am well used to it." It sounds like a serious warning, but the words used are less convincing.

"I love jabbering." Lilith responds, "I come." She says, and leaves to the shuttle bay. Entering a recovered shuttlecraft, the infested pilot moves it into space and then into the atmosphere of Terra, plunging through black clouds in a plasma sheath, slowing down and moving alongside the Thunderhawk transporting the Primarch and his kin.

The cities turn to more than just colours below, with light and life and prayer alike visible through portholes and audible through vibration alone. It flickers beneath at speed as, finally, a landing site is found. All of the shuttles landing in a golden pad, beginning to disgorge their passengers. The Primarch strides out first, staring at the colossal palace in the distance with a look of distaste, or perhaps that's the air quality.

Once again, Lilith was grateful for the efficiency of Abathur's designs, as air was heavily filtered through microscopic spiracles. While a throat was fun, Abathur was right. It was inefficient. He had always been right, battle had made her realise he was right about many things. The place… was pitiable, she realised slowly. The stories of the thirtieth Millenium she had heard, made her realize just how tightly something had gotten its grips into the imperium. She was quiet, and followed Guillimans lead.

He marches forwards, striding past supplicants who stare amazed at his presence. The caravan of armoured warriors behind him encircling Lilith and other valued figures, including that woman….Katarinya. She knew Celestine. The Inquisitor tosses a glance here and there at the blade in Lilith's possession, but leaves it at that.

Lilith looks to Katarinya, "I'm merely holding it until she returns." Letting the low whispered words hang between them.

"I realize, Lady von Illar." The Inquisitor answers, keeping her eyes forwards, "She will come for it, and you were trusted." It's a faint praise, she is a woman whose career was built exterminating the impure.

It never bothered Lilith, none of it did anymore. People were people, and if they came to fight then there would be no stopping it beyond kindness and strength. Mincing words seemed… More pointless, now. "Nothing makes me happier, than knowing some day she will take it back." The empathy finally stayed in the box, just a bit. Not an overwhelming surge of love that ruined everything. Just a pip to show it was possible, and then put back away.

Gold armoured giants stop the caravan, crossing halberds as their Guilliman-equalling size proves daunting. "Peace be, Custodes. I am here to speak with my father." He carefully speaks, looking into the red glaring lenses of their armour, flaring plumes drifting in the wind.

"You alone will." The voice of the Custodes is as one, all of the ones in formation blocking the caravan unified. This makes Guilliman's stone mask shift, annoyance flickering.

Lilith's neck hairs stand on end, as she starts to count heads, and observe the room more quickly. Still not fucking tall enough to see over people. Then the other humans for she too was human, she knew it because of Celestine's light. Looking for reactions. The slightest signs of shock were not good. They were big, Guilliman big, she gently loosened herself, realising she was getting wound like a clockwork toy. Surely you can take a Shield Maiden, Guilliman. She thought to herself.

"Very well." He growls at them, "I demand my honour guard." The Custodes shift, considering amongst themselves, the almost silent whispering of their communication barely reaching any ears. They arrive at a conclusion.

"Select three." They demand in unison, commanding the Primarch. Lilith was proud of herself, she didn't even give a derisive snort. War had finally given her discipline.

"Lord Defender Marneus Calgar. Inquisitor Greyfax, Lady Von Illar. Follow me." He marches forth, pushing past the Custodes as they only move at the last second. The Primarch continues the march to the Palace, so close as to be felt, its towering, miles high walls shining and golden, the interior makeup vibrating with energetic reinforcement.


The first name mentioned marchest forwards, an Astartes with the beginnings of grey in his hair, the first Lilith had ever seen with such. The second begins to follow, by far the smallest person here. As Lilith follows she readies herself silently. Greyfax had… That look. Her look. She wanted to tear it off sometimes, make her give it back. Probably better that Lilith made no attempts to get close. Though that was obviously insane.

Then, as a feather whispered in her chest, and tickled two different women's pinkies Lilith remembered that she was also obviously insane, so at least it was sensical. She was an Inquisitor, she was careful not to stare. Surely the Xeno would just make her nervous. Even as she wins this entire war for the Imperium. No. For her.

The gates of the Palace slip open, grand gates that could stop an army opening before the Emperor's Son to reveal scores of Custodes inside, lockstep and ready to jump into battle at a moments notice. Guilliman strides between them without fear as he arrives before another, smaller gate, leading into a chamber that glimmerss with rays of light.

Inside the Palace is a place of gold and luxury and wealth beyond measure, every square inch coated in value. Warriors fade into the pillars, Lilith realizing their armour is camouflaged for this place, nowhere else. The opulence disgusted her personally, but not with fire anymore. Just more pity. Machines whirr, pumping fresh air from vast ceiling vents that blend in almost perfectly with the rest. The two others are looking around in wonderment, surprised at even making it here.

"One will enter." A mechanism voice pierces the ears of everyone, gurgling with static and scrap. A titan of merged flesh and machinery crawls on a hundred miniscule, for his size, legs along his bottom half, most of the twisted arcane cybernetic merger hidden under red robes as a true machine man glares, six-dozen red and green lensed optical sensors on a mouldy, ancient face shot through with a grille on its mouth and barely any skin remaining.

"Go, Lord Guilliman." An armoured warrior, human, with decorations all over his chest and the sag of age on his features answers, flickering in through a telepresent hologram. He bears the medals of generations upon generations of war, the stark, empty eyes of command across time immemorial.

The doors start to creak open, letting streams of golden light past, which fade into sparks that vanish in the air, the Saint's aura, writ large. As it clears, a sight is revealed. A massive throne bearing a similarly massive skeleton. A red cybernetic eye the only still present sense on the degraded corpse, ticking, hissing machinery forcing life into the bones, keeping it, somehow, terribly, painfully alive.

The things they do to stay alive… It's horrific. She couldn't help but think. Empathy, raw, and unfiltered once again leaking from its damnedable box where it belonged.

"Father." A voice, grand and proud and yet so much like a child, seeing his parent hurt, weak, no longer inviolable escapes Guilliman before the stone shifts to cover and crush it. Restoring the visage, restoring the Lord. He takes a step forwards, hovering at the edge of the door.

After a long wait, dreading this, he speaks again, "I come to demand answers." THe Primarch steps into the chamber, and doors snap shut behind him. Light gleaming through the edges of the entranceway as something happens. The machine man slinks back in a noise of mechanism, hiding in a side room whilst Katarinya, Marneus and Lilith are left to stand in the midst of the chamber, surrounded by Custodes.

Lilith, pulled a coin from the clothes she now wore, letting it slide over her fingers in nervous energy. The coquettish dance that was now second nature and elegant, was almost as if the coin was a part of her. Letting it work its way around her fingers in a silent ballet. Sometimes it looks like the coin is dancing around the world, and sometimes the world looks like it's dancing around the coin. The irony of playing with a throne in the palace doesn't escape her.

The other two honour guards glare, even the custodes seeming to be… Insulted by her lack of decorum as eyes snap to her. She puts her hands up, and then puts the coin away, waiting. Eyes searching the room as… Whatever… Was happening inside happened. This was the imperium palace, Lilith was positive whatever the end result was, it would be uniquely horrifying in a way that personally upset her.

She considered for a second making a joke, but thought better of it for once.

Hours pass, the glow intensifying and lessening in an almost rhythmic pulse, until finally, with a groan of effort, the gates are opened from inside. The Primarch pushes into the entrance chambers with the honour guard, and there is a glow in his eyes, golden and fading.

"There is reason." He says, as if victorious, "And there is hope." Guilliman declares even to the small collection here. "I take what is mine, the title of Lord Commander. The weight of the Imperium shall fall on my shoulders, and I will lead it out of this darkness." The Custodes stomp their halberds once in response, a keening, echoing noise that ripples through the chamber.

He arrives before the three he brought, "If you three wish to follow me. You still may, but I release you of your bonds. You are free." A declaration, shucking bonds of duty. Marneus falls to a knee immediately, "My pledge remains, Primarch!" A shouted loyalty, unquestioning, unceasing.

Not knowing the protocol, Lilith dips her head, "You have me and Mine, Lord Commander." Looking at the Astartes, not sure if that was an everyone thing or not.

"The eye of the Inquisition remains, Lord Commander Guilliman." Katarinya keeps her cool even when confronted with such… majesty. Inclining her head, but not falling to a bow.

Did she just out-do me in a game, Lilith thought for a moment. Then I miss Varynna. Feeling a bit of her old self again returning, Lilith looks to Guilliman, "Meeting went pretty good then, huh?"

"Something of that nature. Yes." He answers, stone returning to him slowly.

"I need you to know where I am anyways, so Celestine can find me." She says, letting the giddiness wash over her. Feeling something… Twinge inside, in the box. In the deck. In wherever she called that space where things go to be left untouched. In Swarm-space she observed, Ana and Varynna, but they felt so distant, the light so bright it made everything funny. Even Ana's voice seemed a little tinny in her ears. Get ready to celebrate. He's happy. Maybe Varynna should shoot her shot.

"My first task for you, and Inquisitor Greyfax, then, will be heartening." Guilliman promises, "In a vision, I have seen where she lives again."

"I leave at once, I can start going now, and you can have someone tell Ana." She says, turning and almost running out. "I need to prepare the Behemoth." As she starts to walk she stops, looking at Greyfax. "You're holding me up."

"Where is she, Primarch?" Greyfax ignores the words from Lilith, gathering information first with the honed edge of an investigator. "The Hive World of Necromunda." At that, Katarinya turns on a heel, marching off.

Lilith is nearly out of the Palace by now, almost sprinting the moment it wouldn't seem dangerous or indecorous to do so, Change of plans Ana, we go to Necromunda. Greyfax is coming, or taking her own ship. I'm not really overly concerned what the prejudicial ass does.

"You will be coming on my vessel, Von Illar." Greyfax commands, "I will not have the enemy know we are searching for a Saint."

T"How did you catch up to me?" Lilith said, turning around, "I walk faster than most men can sprint."

"I am a psyker." She answers, as if that explains everything.

"Cool, join the club, I seem to collect them." Lilith said, fuck I hate… She looks wrong and sounds wrong. For once feelings not coming as easy. "We can take two ships, or we can take my ship." Lilith finally said, not slowing, "I'm not going without my family, or my home. I don't really care by what authority you plan to stop me with."

"I plan to stop you by your idiocy." Greyfax jabs, "You will not drag a psychic beast through the warp to the hiding place of Saint Celestine. You will not." A psychic emanation suggesting something deeper than just practicality lies behind the words used. "You will listen."

"If it's idiocy, explain. If the explanation is good, I will listen. If you are used to being unquestionably followed, you are going to struggle a lot more with this then I will." Her jaw sets, as she looks her in the face, and then tries to stop herself from getting… Sad at her eyes, before looking away.

She glares back, "You alone are a problem, a unique presence in the Warp. They know your scent. But I can hide it. That creature, I cannot hide."

"Fuck." Lilith says, "That's a very good reason. A very good reason. I need to move something to your ship, a single piece of… Furniture."

"Move it quickly, we leave when the fuel is done pumping." The Inquisitor answers. Continuing to the shuttle.

In swarm space, Lilith wills her hatchery to spawn a single drone, then sent it to herself. Ana, meet me at Greyfax ship, we can't get the behemoth. We're allowed a piece of furniture, take the drone with you. Lilith was unclear when she got so demanding and she tried to soften herself.

Yes love. Ana obeys through the link.

Sorry. I love you. We're going to… I'll tell you when you're on the ship and why. I don't actually know how safe swarm-space is to chat on really. She says, growling, Also Greyfax looks like Celestine and it makes me want to gut her. It's not sensible.

Alright love, I'll get everything ready. Tell me how else I can help.

The little box peeps, say I love you too? Say… It unprompted? Say… You're fine dear, I'll be… better. I didn't realise I'd get so un-fun so fast. I'll warm up soon enough. Sorry. You mean the world to me.

 

[Princess Scribe]

The Inquisitors ship is black, unmarked. A light cruiser with no identifying brands whatsoever. A shuttle brings a drone over and unloads it into the cargo bowels of the craft, morphing into the safety that a Hatchery brings to Zerg.

Inquisitor Greyfax is pouring over documentation that Guilliman had written and brought over as the last of the fueling tubes disconnect from it. Reading them over and over again. "Do you know anything of Necromunda, Lady Von Illar." She asks Lilith, frowning at the pages.

"Like a giant… Weapon factory… Planet. No, I know it's a hive world. I'm sure it's horrific in some fascinating way." Why are you being like this? She asked herself. "Sorry."

"You are not apologetic. Do not lie to me." Greyfax flips the pages.

"Fuck you I don't lie most of the time," Lilith snorts, "I don't say sorry unless I mean it, you're not important enough to feign wanting forgiveness from."

"Venom suits you better." The Inquisitor comments idly, "A hive world is a city world. Every centimetre of the planet converted to house human life. Necromunda is one of the largest in the galaxy, the upper spires alone house nearly fifty billion, any attempts to count the hive proper are doomed to failure."

"So… You were worried about one ship showing up to a planet of fifty billion." Lilith said, very annoyed.

Snapping a look at Lilith, "One planet with an advanced dockyard and Auspex sense-net." Her voice is cutting, at odds with how much like kindness she looks.

"Well excuse fucking me for asking a question." Lilith said, "I'm going to be following your lead here, but I'm going to match your attitude." She clenched her jaw, and pulled out her throne playing with it again, trying to find something to do.

Taking a breath in a honed relaxation technique, she continues, "I have played the Tarot, and believe I have some idea where she is in the hive. That is the good news." Katarinya slowly works through the stress. "The bad news is that she is in the underhive. A layer beyond the touch of law or society, left alone for millenia to self-govern without the touch of daylight."

"So… Like every other planet we've visited." Lilith said gesturing to the Imperial City.

"You've never been in an underhive. Else your tongue would be tempered." Katarinya speaks, flecks of venom in it as she reinvestigates the paperwork

There's a quick smirk that Lilith tries to hide, "You'd be surprised how tempered my tongue is Katarinya." Then she looks at her, "Well. No. You'd only hear tales."

"Saint Celestine was sure to mention your sinfulness, yes." She glares at Lilith.

"That's not what I meant, don't be cra—" Then Lilith wondered if she meant her time with Celestine, or just her general… Attitude. "Actually, nevermind that was probably what I meant." She looks at Katarinya, and something makes her… Angry. "Don't worry, I'll be a good girl~" The last two words were breathy, trying to get a rise out of her. Suddenly wanting to test the limits of Katarinya's patience.

Katarinya doesn't react to the words beyond scowling further, "Do not play filthy games. I have no interest." She barks suddenly, "Least of all with you."

"Yeah, yeah, disgusting alien, whatever." Lilith said rolling her eyes, "God forbid I save fucking planets and fleets, I'm a disgusting freak." Then for good measure shows Katarinya her middle finger, "This means fuck you by the way. I don't know if it's carried forward this many millenia."

"I hope one day, you throw yourself into a sun." Katarinya's barbs are losing their edge, as she catches a glimpse of Celestine's sword past the sheath with Lilith's motion. Immediately beginning to lose momentum.

"I can't, if you let up even an inch I'm going to cry, so just…" Lilith turns angry at herself, "I'm nicer, normally."

"And I'm angrier, normally." Katarinya admits, tiredly sighing. "The limits of a human body are something Primarchs and Xenos are unfamiliar with. I've come to realise."

"I was human once, twice actually." Lilith said, "I know it, and Xenos still feel the limits of other parts."

"I've been sleeping an hour a night for a month, Lady Von Illar." She stares forwards.

"Jesus fucking Christ. Go to bed." Lilith almost shouted, "Go to bed. No-one could possibly want you to do that to yourself."

"I do not ask what others want of me. I have work to do." The Inquisitor growls.

Lilith's jaw set and she took a step forward, "Share the load, go to bed. You'll end up at half strength in this hive world, get shivved, and I won't know where to go."

Shaking her head as the shuttle lands in her silent, near-empty ship. "If you'd like to share the load, pour over documents with me. I can't see an easy way to enter the Underhive in these plans."

"Can you see anything? With 30 hours of sleep, in thirty days?!" She kept trying to cram down on the empathy, smoosh it back into its godDAMN box. "I'm… I care about people, I'm clearly not helping, I would love to pour over documents. Reading is one of my favourite hobbies on Illar."

She hands a pair off to Lilith, quietly continuing her reading of maps. But still Katarinya can't stop tapping her foot. Eventually growling, "I can't understand how she fell for you. Fought with you." Exhaustion evident in how the words just tear out without fear.

"In a jealous way, or protectful way? I didn't ask much about you when you were getting tossed around at the Victory Ball." Lilith said, "You know the one for me as honored guests of Varynna, because I saved a fleet of imperial ships, Varynna, and an entire fucking planet." Putting the maps down, and taking out her throne again.

"Fuck off!" She throws the documents at Lilith, "If she hadn't done that, she wouldn't have been wounded!" Katarinya cries out, "If she'd ignored you, she'd be alive!"

Lilith uses her tendrils to catch them all and quickly collate them, placing them neatly back on the desk. "No, I know you'd like to think that, but that's not what happened. She lost a fight, it's war. I was right next to her when it happened." Not engaging with the guilt, letting the box stay firmly shut, "I killed the Daemon that did it. Tore out its essence though they got a tiny fragment back the fucks."

Like a deflated balloon, Katarinya collapses into the shuttle floor. "Do you want to know the first thing she said to me?"

"I want to know everything about her," Lilith said, trying not to cry, keeping the BOX fucking SHUT.

"We were on Cadia, my psychic focus." She gestures at the crystal topped gauntlet on her arm, "Was broken, I… am reliant on it. I described its importance, how it was its emotional weight which made it useful." She smiles, looking so much like Celestine.

"She grinned, leaned on my back and whispered, "Could I be your psychic focus?"

Lilith sniffled, "Oh… She liked you… That probably means you were a lot better than I gave you credit for…" She looked away, not wanting to be sad, not wanting the last month to spill out.

"Since then…I had to protect her. She was so…pure, innocent–" The Inquisitor speaks, not minding interruption.

"Perfect." Lilith said quietly. Wanting to die, wanting to not share this moment with someone else, not wanting to share this moment with anyone.

"I am a monster, I will always be, for the Imperium I have done any…horror." Katarinya chuckles at the words, a hollow noise.

Lilith rolled her eyes at that, "She told me… Why, Greyfax. It's the same… Reason that I'm not really bothered by you being an Inquisitor, or Guilliman being Guilliman, or Celestine even being Celestine. I treat everyone the same. She saw me, and she saw I didn't see a Saint. I didn't see an icon. I saw a pretty girl, who was very big." She huffed, "And I loved her so fucking much. She was the only person who told me… Anything kind, unprompted." Lilith can't stop crying now, just wanting to let it out.

"She told me…that…" Katarinya trails off, confused by the turn of the conversation, but diving into it nonetheless. "I was still…valuable. That I hadn't tarnished beyond recovery. I did not ask." Its a vulnerable admission. "She was…kindness, forged in light."

"She told a medicae to give me a las-pistol so I could execute my ex. Which means… She had a pretty good judge of character actually. She knew when people couldn't be saved as well as when they could." Lilith offered, "Sorry, all of my stories about people suck."

"I think we should stick to her as a topic." Katarinya smiles, recovering quicker than Lilith in terms of the quivering tear that had not yet escaped. "Seems we shout less."

"You know, a month ago, I didn't really shout at anyone too much. This was my first… War." She said quietly, staring in the distance. "My first battle was on Illar."

Shaking her head, "I don't remember mine. This…this is just another war to me. Mixing with the rest because I haven't slept." Katarinya laughs.

"I can't stress enough how much that bugs me even though it's none of my business." Lilith says quietly leafing through the documents, "I… Struggle with empathy. Not… The way most people do. A much more destructive way, I learned."

"I have the opposite issue. I have no struggle with it." She admits, "Most…people are just vectors of risk. Calculations of danger to their fellows."

"Oh, you're going to have a time then." Lilith echoed her earlier statements, "Everyone is a person, I dote on people. It's… Constantly making my life difficult actually. It's endearing. Stupid question, do you drink tea?" Lilith says standing up, "I can bring you something to drink, or recaf if you insist on not resting."

"There's an inhaler." The Inquisitor points at a cabinet, "It's what I've been using."

Lilith's face is appalled, "You've been using an inhaler as your sole nutrition for a month?"

"I've been getting intravenous nutrients." She looks confused.

"I cook. I assume the ship has a kitchen." Lilith asked, not even bothering to think about how fucking horrific that sounded. "I'm going to cook you food." It wasn't a request. "And you can let it get cold, if you choose."

"I'll be checking it for poison." Katarinya answers the demand with her own.

"Good, at least then I know you're not intending to throw it away. If you move the documents you can watch me cook to be extra sure." With that, she quickly left to get the provisions that Ana and Lilith had, and made herself useful.

"I can see why she liked you, at least." Katarinya whispers, heard easily by Zerg senses.

Thinking pointedly at the psyker, Same.

---

Warp Travel is growing easy, the Inquisitorial vessel in excellent condition compared to many other ships Lilith or Ana has ridden in. It cleaves through warp-space and arrives at its destination rapidly, barely a day at Warp.

Unfolding from that ensemble, manic space in a crackling portal, Necromunda can be seen. Where Terra is golden and glorious, Necromunda is rusted and black, spilling green toxic oceans into the vast barren plains that surround the great megacities, the great human Hives of wrought metal and broken nature.

At the silent bridge, with just enough crew to function, Greyfax growls, "A den of heresy. I can sense it." Looking at the eyesore of a planet with hate. "I'd have it cleansed on suspicion alone."

"Eh… Heresy is the one where you say bad things right? Ana?" Lilith asks looking towards her.

"It's the one where you betray the Emperor, love." Ana speaks up, looking from a small knitting project she's taken up, a common activity with the Queen's on Illar.

"I thought every planet was governed by it's own laws, that are then kind of in a big… Mesh that's the empire's laws?" Then Lilith touched her chin, "I'm realising I don't know what Heresy is."

"I stand above law, I enforce the Emperor's will." Katarinya declares proudly. "The Imperium trusts my instinct above all other judgement."

"Right so what's Heresy then." Lilith asks conversationally, "Is it like porn? You know it when you see it."

"You very much know when you see it, yes." She presses down on a switch, lowering the ship towards the planet and beginning docking procedures.

"Would… Blowing in an Inquisitor's ear be heresy?" Lilith asks, looking down at Katarinya.

"...No, but I will hurt you." Katarinya threatens, not able to lie about that.

Lilith looks at her, with a mock shocked gasp, "Are you turning red? Inquisitor, I'm a dirty Xeno, you can't have those thoughts about me."

"I will hurt you." The threat escapes in an aged and grim growl.

With a grin that reaches from ear to ear, Lilith can't help it. "My mistake, maybe you're just going flush because you're mad. I do want to see who'd win that tussle someday though." Lilith had been like this for the entire day. Her old self slowly returned, but more controlled and measured, actually pulling back occasionally.

"Get off my ship." The Inquisitor says as the docking clamps lock on, holding it steady.

"Do you salute an Inquisitor Ana?" Lilith asks, as she turns to leave.

Putting her things together and following Lilith, she says "Typically, you pretend to not notice them."

"Oh! I'm not going to do that, probably." Lilith admitted, going to the exiting ramp, and casually dropping down about fifteen feet, before the ship had finished docking procedures. Landing on the bay with a very light step. She looked up at Ana, who seemed to be choosing to stay, and called up "What? She said get off the ship!"

"She told you that love! I value my knees and their lack of pain!" Ana shouts, waiting for the docking procedures to finish before gingerly stepping off the craft down the ramp. Greyfax is close behind, having gone from an almost gothic plate and coat to something near-normal. A coat thrown over a sweater and very generously pocketed long pants, ending with heavy boots, resembling a paranoid veteran rather than inquisitor.

Lilith had gotten used to wearing clothes, finally, in the Imperium. Though her choices were… At ends, with her surroundings. A flowing black sundress, mostly to allow access from her tendrils at a moment's notice ended in low-top sneakers. Her foci had been sequenced a bit further to closer resemble hair, and in general she looked, closer to human than before. If not for the extremely odd clothing choices. Her hatchery had finally been able to create apples from Biomass, and so she happily snacked on one while she waited for Ana, in her robes, and Greyfax.

"We've got to make this quick, port authorities are coming to welcome the Inquisitor, and I have bribed the dock staff to delay them." Greyfax walks past, "They will meet an Interrogator of mine whom is pretending to be me. Our presence will be secret." She continues, looking at the harsh drops of the spires down to the hive beneath with an uneasy eye.

Lilith punctuated her sentence with the loud crunch of an apple. "Got it."

Following the Inquisitor, they duck into side alleys and dark corners as cargo elevators take them lower and lower into the hive, a route planned before they'd arrived followed by memory as Katarinya displays exceptional spycraft, successfully avoiding all human contact for nearly two vertical miles until they're deep within the hive.

As a teeming mass of humanity passes in the vast central causeways, tight and shoulder to shoulder, brushing past even Lilith without a care of who or what she is, under the almost-neon lights of the inner sections of this metallic cavern, Katarinya spots a flickering sign above what looks like a dive bar, "There, that establishment. I remember the owner's father."

Leaning in very close with a breathy whisper that almost tickles Katarinya's ear Lilith says, "Ok, so what's the sign for me to start opening people up?"

Twitching annoyedly, "I will shoot first." She answers, pushing Lilith away with a hand to her chest before storming to the bar.

"Ma'am," Lilith whispers, shocked with faux embarrassment, but following quickly behind.

Love, Anastasia asks, as they walk, Why are you trying to get the Inquisitor to kill you?

As she steps into the bar, Lilith admits, I think if I showed my affection by being nice, she'd just shoot me. She needs to be teased. She yearns for it.

The inside is something almost familiar to Lilith, some sort of jukebox playing what can only be rock music across the dive bar interior. Amasec's soaked into the floor, people are rough, reliable and violent besides. Dark light consumes everything, sending coloured rays from obviously salvaged LED's to light anything up.

Anastasia, do you smell Rye whiskey? Lilith's eye twitches, as she looks around the bar, something sending hairs on end making her hackles raise.

No, love, do you? Ana answers as Greyfax moves to the tender, a very attractive woman, riddled with electric lights implanted just beneath her skin in a rippling pattern, hair changing colour actively as the LED's shift to different tones second by second.

Lilith shakes her head as she watches Greyfax talk, watching the hair changing color, and making note of that for her own sequencing, I've… I think bad things happen if you shoot a psyker at point blank range I'm learning.

Generally, bad things happen at most ranges. Ana says mentally whilst Greyfax speaks, "I've come to collect on…the gunmetal incident." The woman tilts her head, frowning. "Gunmetal-Oh." Before freezing, "That's…ancient news, that's…my great grandfather's time." Her voice is smooth, like wine poured on a sunny day.

I think… I'm feeling the urge to talk suddenly, after a month Lilith admits, as she listens in carefully.

"But you remember." Katarinya demands, "I need someone found." Her voice is low, but forceful, brooking no discontent, "If it is done quickly, I will consider the debt settled." The woman frowns, as if worried what she's about to say will have consequences, "I'm…sorry, but my family no longer…does that. It's been over two centuries."

"Wait how old are y—" Lilith pauses, frozen in place, you had so much decorum what happened.

Women.

Women happened.

Looking up at Lilith, the bartender smiles, "Oh, me? I'm twenty seven."

"Right, so like, three generations separated from what is even being discussed." Lilith said, looking at Katarinya.

"Well, I'm not useless!" She says, somewhat despondent. "Plenty of people come asking for grandfather's debts, I know who you have to talk to!"

Lilith leans in with a big smile, "No-one said you were useless! I definitely didn't." Giving a Katarinya a gentle hip nudge to get out of the way. The Inquisitor growls, but gives way, sensing the winds of the conversation shift.

"That'd be very helpful, thank you. I know it's your grandfather's debt, but if there's anything else you could do to…" She gave her a big smile, "Grease the wheels, that'd be terribly kind."

She looks over at a dark corner of the bar, "Well, your first step is shaming him for sitting in the darkest corner alone." Her lips quirk as a pair of almost glowing white eyes glare back at her, "When he wants customers for his information."

"Forgive him, he's… very smart in most ways." She apologetically states to Lilith, finding her an enjoyable conversational partner.

Lilith smiles not quite looking at Katarinya she said, "I know the type. Does he have a favourite drink? Maybe I'll walk over with two, that way you also get something for your time! Later we can make it three or four after you get off."

Smirking with a look of supreme confidence, "I'd prefer it before I got off-what was your name?" The Tender asks.

"Eve," Lilith said, "They call me Eve, what about you?"

"Torah." The now named woman answers, "Two Dammasine's sound good for now?" She pulls three bottles from the wall, starting to mix the drinks into a light green cocktail.

"Yes ma'am, sounds wonderful," then she looked to Anastasia, I don't know what's an acceptable but sexy tip.

Rolling her eyes, Ana answers, Three thrones for the drinks, two would be kind as a surcharge, yes.

Reaching into her sundress as if it had a pocket, Lilith quickly pulls out five coins, stacking them all on top of each other vertically. Delicately putting the stack on the bar counter. At this point she was just having fun.

As Katarinya walks past, she mumbles something about lust being sinful, moving to the new target.

"I'm going to make someone blush by the end of the night," Lilith retorts at the mumble, walking over with two drinks. Placing one in front of the older gentleman and one in front of her self. Nimbly draping herself over the side of the booth as Ana scoots in.

Katrina, on the other hand is standing, palms flat on the table, glaring at the man.

"Are you going to threaten everyone today?" Lilith's eyes light up as she moves to sit down, with her own drink matching the other man's.

"Your tattoos mark you as a violent offender." She growls at the man, "Spent time in an iso-cube for murder, did you? Would you like to go back."

Lilith looks at her, "Okay, that's a way to start a conversation, I was going to open with the drink. He doesn't even know why you're threatening him yet." Lilith reaches out her hand, "Hello, I'm Eve! We're hoping you can help us!"

"Hello." He says, staring at Katarinya with a look of confusion, "I don't know who you are, but the Arbites haven't come down here since I was a child. No one's arresting me."

"Yeah, she's the type to just shoot people honestly," Lilith admits, "Which I feel like, is not going to be that useful, which is why I'm currently ignoring her and trying to go for a more peaceful solution." She takes a sip of her Dammasine, tasting a fizzy, almost herbal liquor, "Oh this is good, I like this."

The man frowns at the mention of shooting, seeing the pistol obviously on Katarinya's hip. "Quite, tell me then, what my services are needed for." His eyes finally drag over to Lilith, "Call me Broker." Prompting Torah to groan at the bar, putting her face in her hands.

With a light titter, "Perfect, we…" Ana, ask… Kat, what we want said please. "We'd like to settle the gunmetal debt, or… Find someone."

Katarinya intercedes, "Find a woman, approximately six foot three, built, long black hair, scars on her left cheek, right side of her lip, burn on her inner left arm, stab scars in her stomach and chest, a burn on her lower back."

Lilith then added, "and smells like cinnamon."

Katarinya seemed exasperated at that, shooting Lilith a death glare.

"She also has a bite mark scar on the inner thigh I think." She added, trying to stifle a grin.

It takes the will of an Inquisitor to not draw and fire on Lilith at that comment, whilst the man answers, "Detailed description, rare, but good. I'll ask my network, I don't have a stake in the gunmetal debt."

"How many thrones then, for fast, how many more thrones for discreet?" Lilith said again, now having so much fun. Especially when she realised that Katarinya was about to shoot her.

"Two hundred for fast, four hundred for discreet, eight hundred for both." The Broker gives an estimate quickly, thinking it over in a second.

Ana how much is eight hundred thrones exactly? She smiles thinking.

A house, or two. Anastasia gives an estimate,

So… Bringing thousands was a great, or terrible idea "Five hundred for both, or six hundred for both and you tell us whoever else comes snooping." Lilith threw in for good measure. "It'll be easy, I think I'm going to be coming back at least a couple of times."

"Eight hundred, and I tell you of snooping. A thousand and I tell you before I answer their questions–" Katarinya grabs his head and puts it through the table, "Six hundred, you tell us, and I don't rip your mind apart, filth."

"With respect, the violence, was implied by the gun." Lilith chooses her words very carefully, realising she had found herself in the room with another Sarah Kerrigan, but with more combat experience, and far less patience for it. "Please let the nice man go."

The flicker of psychic power in her eyes suggests she's looking for something, "I think I might just take a hand first." She plants her clawed gauntlet hand on his wrist, the points digging in through the skin as he finally realises where he is and starts to panic. "F-five hundred, a-and I w-warn you!" He negotiates through a broken nose.

"Free, and I let you walk." Greyfax growls into his ear, holding him down, "Be convincing, and I forget about your family." He freezes.

"You have to know that torture doesn't work." Lilith says now with a surge of annoyance before gently tapping her leg with a tendril. "Please, let him go, can we just try it my way first."

Growling again, she throws the man back into his seat, standing with a slightly bloody hand and glaring at him "Cooperate with her." Or else, the implied threat lands home.

"Eight hundred you warn us before you answer any questions, and I come back with just this one, the next time we meet." Lilith said, jerking her head to the Astropath. "Because we'll be business partners and friends." Her smile was venomously sweet like sour apple candy.

Grayfax seems perturbed that they were giving money away in such great quantities, but it didn't really bother Lilith, they didn't even know where they landed. Though the angry glares didn't stop.

"Agreed, agreed," Broker says quickly. "I'll r-return with answers in an hour. I g-give my word!" Something Katarinya snarls at, "I know if you are lying."

"Wait," She says before Broker leaves, "We have to get your money as well, we'll trade then," Before turning around sweetly, "When does your shift end Torah? I'll just come back around then, and then after we're both done with work we can catch up!"

"I own the bar, Eve." Torah chuckles, waving Lilith off.

"So just after closing." Llilith says, "Sounds great for everyone involved!"

A flicker of light passes through Torah, pink and purple pulsing as she smiles, before the mass of humanity overpowers any noise when Lilith and the rest go outside. Katarinya loses the faux anger, or perhaps just lets go of the real anger. "I think I know our next destination, I saw images in his mind."

"Tailing Brok— Oh." Lilith said, realising they were on different pages entirely.

"Getting ahead of him. I don't care what he tells us." She growls, "He's scum, I'll throw him down a spire before I leave." The Inquisitor keeps her pace up.

"True, and then when we make enough enemies, and we never find what we're looking for, we'll have a nice pile of corpses and prisoners for our troubles." Lilith says, keeping pace with a light skip. "Or, we be methodical, make sure we don't make huge I'm incredibly blood thirsty, government affiliated, and will not work with you waves and this all gets wrapped up before tea." Then Lilith stops, "I think I'm into tea now."

"Despite what you may think, I've done this a thousand times." Katarinya retorts, "I know how to manipulate criminals, fear is perfectly effective in the term we need."

"So… What's your batting average then?" Lilith teases, "Have you never failed?"

Katarinya flinches. Then growls, "Keep that to yourself."

"Ah shit I keep doing that. I might be a low-level something." She whispers, "I didn't mean that like that. I'm saying, you get two shots at it if you start kind, then go to fear. You only get one shot if you start with fear." Maybe she was a psyker, maybe she had an ability to just nitpick people's insecurities. "I'd like two attempts at this incredibly important thing we're doing."

Crushing the anger down again, Katarinya answers, "I am aware, yes. I will be polite when the situation calls for it." She's clipped and measured, keeping her tone steady.

Lilith dropped the tone for now, "Thank you, I will, out of respect for you and your patience, not tease you again until tomorrow." Then followed it up with, "You're a psyker, you have full permission to look in my head and see that I was going to treat you this way no matter what. Just don't snoop around too much there's… Fantasies like… Strung about, I'm told."

Following the trail, or the future trail of the man, Katarinya lets the words wash over her, devoting herself to the work. She's a bloodhound with this, finding a way around every crowd and obstacle in minutes at most. That is until she frowns and then growls, "Damnit, too slow." At the mouth of an alley, dirt and trash filling the edges in a very homely sight to Lilith.

She starts looking around the alley, her eyes suddenly feeling odd. Little flashes of memory hitting her. This world was… Just like home. Which meant that if there was a meeting that was going to be here, it'd be a drop, or there's be a way into somewhere more private. People don't just have conversations in alleys; it's very sketchy. As she walks through it, she notices a dumpster. It has similar holes for some kind of… Garbage truck, or drone she supposed to pick up, dump, and put back down.

"Kat hand me a light," Lilith said, holding her hand out behind her, not looking at Katarinya, "A flashlight or something."

"What did you just call me?" Katarinya growled, before noticing where Lilith was looking. Handing a globe that she shakes to Lilith, the kinetic force turning to light, bright light.

Looking at the glowing golf ball, with a bit of amusement, she grasped it with a quick tendril, and held it inside. Then, she reached another into the divot, and pulled out a small piece of electronics. Which was most likely a data storage device of some kind. "Did we just miss him, because they left this?" She held up a long thin hunk of technology. "Looks like a storage device maybe?"

"A dataslate-duck." She commands, pistol drawing out and flaring with energy as someone turns the corner with a heavy barreled weapon. It is no laspistol, a solid beam the size and thickness of a human head impacts and detonates the first man in a bang.

"You… You… You didn't just kill him, you… just removed him from existence." Lilith said, looking at the viscera and gore, "My god. I want one of those." she yelped looking back at the gun.

Coolly flicking the capacitor cylinder open, she lets a single steaming heatsink slip out, rotating and locking it shut. "Everyone does."

"You must have extras, right?" Lilith asks, now eyeing it like a particularly juicy piece of fruit.

"They are still around the corner." She loudly hisses, "And should turn it to surrender if they want to live."

"Oh." Lilith sprinted across the wall of the alley high above the corner, and poked her head around the top of it to see how many there were. Four terrified men and women drenched in blood and viscera stare back, dripping slightly. One's just gotten done vomiting into a divot.

"You guys might want to slowly walk into the alleyway, she thinks you're trying to kill her." She says from above, before sliding back down the wall, and then giving a gentle, affirming beckon with her hand, "Come on, before she starts annihilating people again."

The four men and women slowly surrender though not entirely clear, what they were surrendering too or for. Lilith rubbed her eyes before turning her back on them. "Did you kill that man because he pointed a gun at you, or because he existed around you and happened to have a gun?"

"I killed him because he was pointing a weapon at me, yes." Katarinya is vaguely insulted, "Or was going too. I rarely let my opponents draw on me."

"Right, but then you don't really know if they're going too or not, because you've killed them already." Lilith said, "I'm going to let these people go now, they've surrendered, and are largely unarmed." She turns around and gives a surprisingly thorough pat down of everyone.

"They know our faces." Katarinya growls, pointing her pistol at them.

"Fine," Lilith says, and with tendrils very quickly ends all four of them, in deathly silence, in less than a second. "But I'm keeping the biomass." Her sequencer tendrils quickly slicing them down into raw bio-matter that she could carry with her between her Carapace, everything happens in less than thirty seconds. Then she smiles at Kataryna and Anastasia, returning with mischievous energy.

Ana smiles back, blase at the violence at this point. "Shall we continue on the trail?"

"Maybe, I'm curious how many more people Kat is going to kill for existing around her." Lilith muses somewhat loudly.

"Would you like to be one such person?" Katerinya threatens, "One more mention of a housepet and I'll be glad to add you to my tally."

"Only because you kno—" Lilith stops, "I promised I would stop Teasing you, and I will, but the nickname is a sign of adoration, not an attempt to get a rise. I'll stop that until tomorrow too though."

She chases the objective in response, all the way until she realises, "It's far, damnit." And turns to a nearby vehicle. An elbow smashes the window in, and a jab of a knife turns off the alarm as she…steals a car in twelve seconds flat. Opening wires underneath the steering wheel, she fiddles with them for maybe another half minute before an electric engine hums to life.

"Get in." She orders, unlocking the doors.

---

 

[Red Shirt]

SNIP

Click to shrink...

33 and 34 are the same chapter, just thought I'd alert you sooner rather than later

 

[Princess Scribe]

Shit thank you!

 

[Princess Scribe]

"Ana, you should get in the front seat, if I get in the front seat, I'm going to poke her and get shot in the head." Lilith admits, before climbing into the back very quickly, rolling down the window to put her hand out of it.

Ana sits in the front seat, idly saying, "I don't know why you think being behind her will go any better for you."

"She has to reach behind her to shoot me now." Lilith says, as she points at the driver side seat. "It's a truce, now she knows she can trust me six inches from her ba—"

Kataryna peels down the pavement as the electric engine lets out a high pitch choir that seems to herald it's coming. Lilith, is finding Necromunda a very familiar sort of place, and places a hand outside the window to catch air, playing with it as it runs over her hands. There's a loud screeech as Kataryna hits a corner, before peeling down another six blocks, making another fish-tail inducing turn, then three more before slamming the entire car to a stop in front of…

"Where are we?" Lilith asks, looking at Kataryna."What are we even looking for?"

"This." She squeals into a handbrake turn, moving into a parking spot easily and clearing a crowd in the process, opening a way into the pulsating, almost vibratory music of some sort of club. A sight for sore eyes for many. "A den of iniquity. Inside I can sense–"

"Oh SHIT. It's a CLUB!" Lilith squeals, "Ana, we have to go dancing later, come on." She walks inside, "Before K— Our good friend, shoots up the place." She gives the bouncer a big smile and holds her partner's hand as they easily find their way inside, though before The Inquisitor almost pulls her weapon, she runs back out and says, "Oh sorry, this is our friend! She's watching over us, a little overprotective but she's really sweet."

She is allowed in. Growling at the bouncer who looks apologetic, "My mistake ma'am, I know what being a veteran is like." He pulls a sleeve up, showing a tattoo on pale skin of some regiment of Guard.

The inside of the place is vibrating with noise. Flickering lights sending beams across a floor where bodies press against one another, human scents heavy in the dark air. Something industrial pulses from the speakers, clearing out and shaking the walls with force. The clothing choices here are zippers, leather, black and ultimately revealing.

Ana blinks, "I've never been somewhere like this before!" Her shout barely carrying over the music.

"Really?" Lilith shouts back, "We'll come back later when we're not working. It's fun!" She gives someone a little pinch as she walks past, before running up the stairs to a second floor. Somehow far ahead of the Inquisitor, who is following psychic senses. Eagle eyes scan the room, when she very quickly sees one particular corner booth that is lively with conversation, and has a small strap barrier sectioning it off with two guards on either side. She takes a moment for the Inquisitor to show up.

When Kataryna, now far past her wits end huffs and puffs up the stairs she says "We nee—"

"To talk to the guy in the corner booth?" Lilith cuts her off, to an almost feral glare. "Right. Do you actually want to shoot your way out of here, or get what we're looking for? Also, what are we looking for? I can go either way, but I truly believe we could have this solved in fifteen minutes."

"Do you want to know what I'm best at? As a psyker?" Katarinya says, catching her breath.

Lilith stops, now actually a little befuddled, "Does psyker not just mean telepath / telekinetic?"

"No," She answers, her eyes turning to a doorway, "I'm a diviner." And it opens to reveal three men, each carrying one side of an oddly human sized box.

"Did they put her in a fucking BOX?!" A psychic boom resonates from Lilith, as she races towards the doorway. Slaughtering her way past the armed guards with ease, merely human bodies breaking on impact and Kicking the door in watching as it crumples another man, the second's neck snapped as she reaches out simply grips it with her full force. The third she crushes between her hands like a cantaloupe, splattering herself in viscera. "Ahem," She says, realising she might have lost her temper, before opening the box.

As she opens the box, a dirty shiv is planted in her hand and a vicious scream is heard as a dirty, soot and blood covered woman scrambles out of the container and to a corner of the room, looking for an escape with dark, amber eyes. Long black hair matted and tangled, familiar scars mixing with new injuries and no recognition of anything in her gaze.

"Remind you of who you are." Lilith says, realising what she looks like now. "Hey, I'm here to save you, not kill you. I would have done that when you shived me." she starts getting very calm and low. "I saw them carrying away a woman in a box, and I got scared for her safety I'm sorry I startled you with grey matter." She's even quieter as she quietly sits down, and pulls the shiv out of her hand.

"My name's Lilith, what's yours?"

Staring with an abject terror, the word Lilith gives something resembling comfort to her. "I…knew? I knew someone named that-I think." She whispers.

"You did, For… Like three days. Does Celestine mean anything to you?" Lilith said closely, watching her face for recognition.

"How the fuck do you know my name!?" She shouts, "Why does everyone know my name!" Hearing curses leave her is odd.

Lilith sighs, sad, trying not to take it to heart. "There's a Saint. Saint Celestine, who has died… Sixteen times now, everytime she comes back. She has to be found, and reminded who she is." Lilith doesn't approach her, simply sitting in the space, happy to be with her, and knowing how horrifically threatening she could be. "She is… A loving person. Incredibly kind. To everyone. She had a lot of friends." Lilith nods, just letting her voice fill the space. "She was a protector. The sixteenth time, she died fighting a Daemon on the way to Terra, to protect the Primarc." A tear, a single tear she had been holding back for a while left, "I was with her, I tried to kill the Daemon before it killed her, but I couldn't. So she died about… Six inches from my fave. It was a little traumatic? To be honest? Probably like this is for you." Lilith laughs just staring at her. "She told me to go find her, I have a feather. I keep next to my heart."

Lilith reaches into her sundress, but turns away slightly, "Let a lady have her modesty Celestine, please." To grab it without revealing an unfurling carapace. She retrieves a fluffy white feather, and hands it back to the young woman. "I have her sword, and before she told me to go find her, I was told she would come to me to look for it. I… Finished her mission, I didn't thinks she'd forgive me if I gave up on our Primarch. Then I found this insane woman," She pointed to Katarinya, "And we went looking for her. I think, since the feather, and all the psychic abilities point to you. You might be the Seventeenth… Er… Sixteenth? The latest Saint Celestine."

"You're crazy." Celestine says to herself, "I've gone from kidnapped to in a room with a madwoman." Katarinya finally enters, covered in blood from another guard, "Two madwomen."

"I cook though, and I'm very nice." Then pointing at her, "And she also adores you, and is very nice to you specifically. We have thrones, food, no-one's going to hurt you. If you never remember that's fine. If you do that's lovely."

"Recovery in progress." Katarinya speaks into a wristpiece.

"If you hurt her Katarinya, you die." Lilith says very very quietly.

"Insult me again, and I'll have you and your hive vented." Katarinya has heat come off her at the very idea suggested.

Lilith ignores her, "I'm not going to fight you right now, there's an infinite later for that." She looks to Celestine, "I'm a big fan of giant chicks with giant swords." She takes the sword off her back. "Can I return this to you?"

Celestine's eyes lock to the blade, flickers of gold passing through them, inciting hope, but seconds pass as they fade and she shakes her head, "I-I d-don't want it, I-." She trembles, aches and pains from her scars nearly forcing her to curl into a ball.

"Ok." Lilith says, not letting, or needing it to go further than that, "Can I carry you someplace safe?"

She looks at Lilith for a long moment. "I…trust you."

"Excuse the crying, that's just really nice to hear." Lilith says, sniffling. She gently scoops Celestine into a princess carry. Squeezing her, not too hard to her chest. "Would you like to hear… Stories about Celestine? Stories about Lilith? Stories about Guilliman? A song? Or do you just want to walk in silence?"

"I–" An impact sounds through the tight hive hallways, prompting Katarinya to hiss, "Drop pods!"

"We're going to start running now ok? Hold on very tight." Lilith is still speaking, very calm. "I'm going to get a little freaky from the stomach down, I'd keep looking into my eyes." She said with a wink. Then. She picked up Ana on her back, and she looked to Katarinya "Meet me at the ship?"

She nods sharply, "Keep to the left."

That was all Lilith need as she RAN, her entire body unpacking with the speed and force of a freight train. almost a hundred spidery, efficient thin Tendrils now moved at lightning speed. Ana direct me. She said. As she rushes past the landing pods, piercing through layers of hive in metallic detonations, one lands directly infront of her. Opening to reveal a large shape, dark burning symbols on armour. A threatening blade drinking light and sending chills up Lilith's spine.

"Give me the Saint." The Lord of Chaos demands.

She looks at him with a big smile, "Aren't you that guy I beat on Illar?" Before Speeding to the left, racing through the tunnels with inhuman speed, with a pace that caused wind to whistle, and surrounding objects to blur for it's passengers. As more and more pods jumped through Lilith started to use their holes to climb through layers of the hive. Running, ever faster. At one point there's bolter fire, and she easily slips through a random shop, a shop built like they've always been built for fourty thousand years it seems. Jumping over diner tables, slipping past familiarly unfamiliar countertops out back where of course people would pile cigarettes after a hard shift Her body stretching and morphing with glee, as she navigates the city almost one sense alone.

And yet, with every third corner, it is there. Like a monster in a cheap horror pict, it keeps up without moving, subtle smell of ozone suggesting teleportation. "I will not ask again." It rumbles as Lilith dives past it and continues forwards. Slipping a sequencer to cut out at it's leg trying to slice open his ankle as she passes. A sharp hiss of pain as she tears out a slip of his essence. Crushing it.

She keeps to the left. Every third corner, she keeps her eyes open, the first left. She dodges another pod, flexes, shakes her shoulders. The second left, she speeds up again, another corner, firing as she turns the third, unleashing a hail of acid and spines into the third riddling the Chaos Lord with divots and burns, but he still stands, this time, she tries to slip past, taking another knick of Essence, greedy. Cocky.

And with that cockyness, his blade slices shallowly. Taking with it a chunk of her own Essence as the black-flame blade drinks in her soul in a deep, agonizing and violating feeling. Holding onto Celestine, she stumbles and comes to a stop, recovering.

Shit she whispers, gritting her teeth, she rips out the damaged tendril entirely, dropping it behind her, letting herself recover from it. Abandoning the ragged cut with a heavy greedy clean slice. Stitching herself back up as she runs again. Thinking.

"I can catch you, now." He taunts, mechanically pumping legs sounding like a freight train. Reaching out to grab at Celestine, forcing Lilith to roll to the side and make him skid to a halt. "Fight me, or die running."

"I'd rather keep embarrassing you." She doesn't stop sprinting, trying to build up speed, knowing that speed alone won't be what saves her. She wouldn't actually win this fight. As she runs, she talks. Thanking The Lord Commander for her Spiracles. "So when we first met Celestine. I had just hit Ultramar the first time, and Ana and I were making up, because I tried to get her hooked up with a shuttle pilot, it didn't work out he was gay." Lilith said, with a chuckle, as Ana seems to tighten around her throat. "You recognized me, and picked me out because everyone else was shrinking at you." She leaps through a second shop, kicking open the door, then doubling back. Hoping the trickery would help somehow. "But I was being a bit of a sinner. I have a vivid imagination and you were very pretty. When you challenged me on it, I doubled down, because I'm also stupid when I'm attracted to someone."

The Chaos blade comes out again, and she tries to slide underneath, another RAGGED cut to her soul. This time she pulls out a klay-stim hoping to god it work as she injects it directly into her heart and keeps running. "I was walking up the stairs, and you said 'LILITH VON ILLAR I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE.' And I begged Ana to let me go assist. You hadn't actually needed my assistance really. You were just a cuddler. I was a lot shorter, about five foot four, you held me. I assumed you wanted, what everyone else wanted. A kind of easy lay that'd hopefully turn into something more. You whispered to me a secret, and I realised I didn't just need to win your affection, but that you felt like you needed to win mine. I said you—"

The Chaos Lord is close; she can hear it. It's laugh echoing in her mind. "I said you were Warm. That you were nice. And then you, completely unprompted, told me I was beautiful. At first I was like that was sweet, but you phrased it as a question. I counted, in my life, how many times someone had called me Beautiful… It was once, by Anastasia. I had begged for it, basically at the time. Well, I melted." It's so close, but this was her only choice. "I just melted. You scooped me up in your arms, and you flew me into the sky. Then you and I kissed, and to be honest Celestine, not to brag, but I rocked your world after that. Like actual explosions of light so strong I changed religions."

"Oh-WATCH OUT!" Celestine shouts as a blade catches Lilith in the back, dragging a furrow into it that sluggishly begins to heal. Ana cries out, struck as well. "I'll kill your love if you don't face me." The Lord jeers, "We have unfinished business. Swarm."

She turns and she looks at Celestine, "I said I loved you, and I'd go to Terra for you. I'm really hoping if you pick up your sword, we can beat this guy. I'm out of options. I'm being really awful asking you to do this. Could you take your sword back? Please?" It's over my shoulder.

The sword cuts through the air where Lilith was just a second ago. An armoured hand reaches for Celestine as Lilith is forced to push the limb away. Matching Astartes strength with a grit of her teeth before overpowering it with a growl, then saying, "Are you ready to die a true death today?"

Two steps back is all he manages, "Are you?" He raises the Black-flame sword, its unlit edge terrifying in how it drinks in everything around it.

Looking to Celestine one last time, "Alright, I'll do it, for you." And she pulls the blade out to match his own, it burns golden light in the presence of Celestine, and she holds it out in front of her. With a manic glee, "I am. We're going to make a symphony!" She yells, as she rushes in with the saint's sword, tendrils, sequencers, trying to pin his leg, swipe at essence, and bring the sword down all at once.

The millenia old killer slips past blows, taking it as scraping hits to the armour whilst managing to intersperse bone shaking parries as the armours mechanism grants him power. A stabbed sequencing limb draws a line of blood from him whilst a crushing fist collapses multiple ribs on Lilith, in that breath to breath, helmet to face melee, he uses a honed swordsman's technique to lock blades and force Celestine's sword out of her hand, skidding across the ground. Getting pummeled with acid spines and spikes that cut through warp shields. No longer going for the sword, Lilith simply tries to attack from as many angles at once, using sequencers, tendrils, her own spines. Hoping to become a hydra of pain while almost silently slipping a silent tendril behind her to sneak it away. Forcing him to decide between defending the blade, or defending himself.

He chooses to slash at Lilith, taking the blows to his sternum, armour cracking at the spines and then penetrated further by sequencing talons, internals filling with black bile. The sword impacts her, edge carving a furrow through the carapace and spilling blood.

Even as she spills, she's still laughing, "When you die, I will rip out your last words, so I can send them to your masters." The blade is embedded in herself through a tendril, creating something far more familiar. Hoping beyond hope that the Chaos Lord had chosen poorly, dripping with nothing on her mind but love for Anastasia and Celestine she rushes in a new, using this new odd technique, something unseen. A new adaptation. As the sword Juts through a sequencer talon and out of her own chest.

It slams into the chaos lord, plunging through breast plate and as she pulls out the now holy sequencer talon, she slashes at essence with the sword embedded around raw, actively healing flesh. Simply another blade that is an extension of herself, no longer a sword in her mind, but a claw, a talon. A talon she has been using to killed demons for a month straight.

Her pride is cut short, as another ragged black flame slash cuts through the sequencer, sending the blade tumbling aside again, blood spilling from the scourged injury on the Lords chest. No more witty threats escape him, just heavy breaths of wounded lungs. Another slash catches her, forcing her back and onto the ground away from him as he catches his footing, trying to stay standing despite the inhuman injury.

"Are you ready to die?!" She screams, as spiracles and pain nerves simply shut off around the damage, she rushes forward again. Not caring if she returns to a hatchery or dies. Not caring if he flees or fails. If her body will be unbearably damaged, crippled beyond repair. These chaos would learn to fear her. For destroying the things she loved. They would recognize her and FEEL something. She leaps to bury her TEETH, into the man's lungs, trying to rip. Them. Out

The moment's unbearably slow. He's wearing a helmet, she doesn't know if the blade will catch her. If she'll strike home. If her hail mary will even work, but as she watches the man startle ever so slightly, she knew she won. Even if she died. She had scared him.

A gauntlet grabs Lilith by the tendrils and throws her off him, impacting a far wall as pain nerves flare and deactivate, neural impact of hitting a wall briefly shocking the Zerg, barely a second of delay. "I will kill y–"

A sword rams through his back and out his front, flaring with fire as a woman lifts him up. "Come, Astartes. Come and be forgiven." The flames start to reach across him, boiling the flesh in his armour in seconds of cleansing pain. As he stops moving, Celestine slowly lowers him to the ground, armour freshly cleansed of markings.

Lilith looks at her with weak eyes, dripping blood, tendrils torn off, parts of her shrivelled and dishevelled. The black flame dripped across her essence, tearing at parts of her. Half her skull was crushed, with one eye lolling off to the side on a nerve strand. Her ribs had be pulverized, and parts of her skin had become tattered shreds.Organs were a leaky mash in a foaming pool around her, and the cut in her shoulder had partly severed her head. The one remaining eye, and the few remaining spiracles wheezed.

"I had it covered."

"I said I'd take care of you, no?" The Saint flexes her wings, floating over to Lilith, a hand banishing black flames and letting her heal faster, "Now." Her voice quiets. "May I carry you, Lilith?" She waits for a response.

Lilith nods crying, "yesss ppleeeeease. Tha—tha—that sucked… Eeeehhh." Her macerated, hamburger-like form slowly pulled together as every part screamed in pain.

Picking her up, she moves to Ana and gently pulls both women to her chest, wings flexing and pushing through the layers of steel hive above, piercing hundreds of metres of earth and metal in seconds of flight until she arrives in an arc high above the base ground, flying alongside spires in an unstoppable ascent.

"We took all the systems to Terra… The Primarch is the Lord Commander. I'm sorry I did that first." She whispered quietly.

"Why? You did something amazing." She tries to nuzzle Lilith, though the constant wingbeats make it difficult.

"Your feather kept begging me to abandon my mission and come find you…" Lilith whispered sadly, "I knew you don't beg… But I liked hearing your voice…"

Finally landing on a pad, she lets Lilith down, Ana finally blinking back to consciousness, less used to pain than the other women and rended by a slash that tapped bone in its passage. "Are we-Did we win?" She asks, looking around.

"I made a Chaos Lord feel fear." Lilith said quietly with a bit of glee, "And I found out that there's almost no amount of pain that isn't fun." Lilith was still half hamburger, and mostly ligaments.

"Oh, that's good." Ana is still dazed, whilst Celestine chuckles, "You two are a treat. And Katarinya, somehow, beat us here." She says as the Inquisitor stands at the top of the ramp, absolutely drenched in blood and metal shavings.

She whispers to Celestine, "Her new Nickname is Kat, now, she hates it. I'm not going to stop calling her that." Then to Katarinya, "Hi Kat, I killed a Chaos Lord and saved a saint, what did you do?"

The Inquisitor nearly breaks, growling before Celestine speaks, "Hello Kat!" The vibration of her voice and the fact she says it freezing Katarinya, eyes wide, words failing her and barbed insult dying before it ever escaped.

Lilith looks to Celestine and Katarinya, "Um… Can you let Katarinya shoot me? It's way faster to get born in the hatchery, this is going to take hours." Lilith admits.

"But Lilith." Celestine smiles, helping the aforementioned woman walk, "Then I can't dote on you."

---

 

[Princess Scribe]

Being doted on by Celestine is an experience that, quite literally, no one else in the Universe has had. She lowers to Lilith's level, kneeling next to the bed with a tray, her fourth tray, of cookies. "I think these ones aren't too badly burnt." She bashfully whispers, showing cookies that are, admittedly, an improvement over her last batch.

An improvement meaning they are just black on the bottom.

"They're lovely," Lilith whispered, as she took one and bit into it with a loud crunch, "Katarinya needs to sleep, she's been sleeping only an hour a day for a month. Anastasia I need to check on her as well." Lilith still hadn't stopped healing, but at least both eyes were now back in her skull. "She got hit bad, she's not tough like me."

"I have an idea, I think you'll like it." There's a mischievous gleam in her golden eyes as she stands up, placing the tray on Lilith's bedside table and striding out of the room. Six minutes later, she has Ana hugged to her chest and a fighting Katarinya on her shoulder. "I brought room-mates!"

"OH good!" Lilith said happily, "Oh good everyone's ok." Her breath starts to ease a little, "Please god Katarinya go to sleep." She murmurs, seeing Ana, "You ok Ana? You're so strong, thank you."

Ana smiles, gently sliding into bed with Lilith and putting her head in the now larger woman's chest. "I'm very in need of cuddles, love." She asks, muffled.

Lilith holds her tight, "Me too." She whispered, almost sad. The last month is finally starting to unravel. "Me too." She has a shuddering gasp, "Just hold me please." She begs.

Anastasia wraps her arms around Lilith, and she smiles, at the touch. Her essence, at being embraced, feeling healed. Happy for the positive attention as it burns inside. She looks at Saint Celestine, and smiles, "No-one leave until I wake-up please. I need you all here… So I know you're all safe while I sleep. No-one else gets lost." Her eyes flutter as she smiles, letting them finally close. Listening to the room around her.

"You heard her, Kat." Celestine croons to the Inquisitor, freezing her with a touch on the waist to pull her off her shoulder and lay her on the bed, "Sleep, rest. Do it for me." There isn't anything much more convincing in existence than that as Katarinya briefly tries to resist, but then finally gives in and closes her own eyes.

A second later, Celestine kneels next to the bed, opening a prayer book and letting the three rest, standing guard.

Lilith was the last to rise, but she rose healed, in a room full of everyone, though Katarinya seemed increasingly irate at not being allowed to leave. Not able to actually over-power, out-will, or convince Celestine to do what she wanted, she instead chose to pace, angrily muttering. Anastasia, whether my direction, or instinct had changed to hold Lilith from behind, so that she felt comforted. Celestine stood guard. Everything made her feel warm. Her eyes opened and caught Celestine's, so she winked, and closed them again for a few moments longer. Finally the pacing and muttering seemed to be accompanied by Kat toying with the gun on her waist, and Lilith had decided the moment had best be allowed to pass.

She sat herself up happily, covered in a warm blanket, trying to figure out what to say. "Kat, I'd be concerned, you have two people who are extremely invested in your wellbeing now."

"Ah, lovely." Celestine rises and grabs Lilith in a hug. Lilith returns it back with glee, squeezing her hard with silent sobs escaping her again. "I didn't want to hug you before, I thought I'd break you." She whispers.

"I would have healed much faster, but I liked the rest." Lilith admitted, "That's why I didn't tell you to put me in the hatchery. The pools in there are almost instant. Then I realised you knew that, and I felt better."

"Mhmm, I was being selfish. This new…Hive life has changed me a tad." The Saint mumbles, "You're no longer….the only one I've kissed." She admits.

"That's fine, no-way they were as good as me." Lilith whispers, "I'm trying to decide if I want to be small or not. Do you want to bring them along?" Her mind is immediately drawn to what Celestine said, trying to suss out Celestine's needs the same way she susses out Varynna's and Ana's.

"I like you tall, but I also like you short." She considers, "When you're tall, the image of me on my knees is less funny." She smirks, being intentionally loud and making Katarinya freeze again.

"I think tall then." Lilith smiles back, her teeth gleaming, "though when I get more biomass I'll uh… Fill out a bit. I could actually be as tall as you I think, I'd have to talk to Abathur. I don't see why not, we have Zerg as big as spaceships."

"You know, if you're that size, I'll stop treating you like you're fragile." Celestine promises with a wry grin, grip tightening to almost uncomfortable strength, far in excess of what even a body her size can doo.

"Oh… A little smaller… Or A little… Larger…" Lilith said her mind now filled with ideas. "Oh… Ooooh!" The second noise is closer to a moan. "Well, we have forever, I'll experiment." Her mind kind of swirling. "You're not mad that I let you die, instead of infesting you when you got your wings ripped off?" Lilith asked, for some reason everything about that scene wouldn't stop playing over and over in her head. Trying to figure out if there was any way she could have changed things. Whether somewhere she had made an unforgivable mistake in Celestine's eyes.

"Come now Lilith." Celestine chuckles, "I wouldn't look nearly as good without my feathers." The joke is a declaration of no fault, no forgiveness needed.

She laughed, "You saw we have infested with wings. They're just… Far scarier. Far. Far. Scarier." Her mind rattles a bit, but she puts it back together quick enough. Her head feels light and floaty. "I was in the Golden Palace. That big ass door opened it was me, Grayfax, and the Old Guy. We just sat there for hours, and the light was so bright." She was blathering again, just happy to be talking to Celestine. "And… Oh I started playing with my coin, and everyone got pissed. We were standing there for hours, what were people expecting?"

"They're always like that. Its why I tease them." Celestine laughs at the imagine,

"I called Guilliman about two or three times a week as well, he's nice! He's cool. Killed a bunch of demons, I actually fought with him most of the time." Lilith continued.

"Mhmm, he's impressively strong. Do you remember the arm wrestling contest I had with that Astarte?" The Saint chuckles at the memory.

"Yeah, the one where we met." Lilith reached up to her face, completely forgotten where she was.

Looking into Lilith with eyes of gold, smiling and full of care, not an obsessive madness, but a gentle love, a saintly one, she answers, "It goes much like that with him, except I'm the loser, and he's the one not using his armour."

"So is he packing?" Lilith immediately blurts out, before wincing, then realising she was curious anyways.

"I see Truth, not lewd facts, Lilith." Celeste rolls her perfect eyes at the question.

"I suppose I'll arm wrestle him then, and try to survive it."

"He disables the armour, dear. He can't leave it." The Saint explains, "His brother's killing blow still…weighs on him, it tore his soul asunder. Without the animating force of Arch Magos Cawl's tech-sorcery…he would not live." It suddenly gets serious, a wave of worry from Celestine making the whole room darken.

"Oh good, you still do that." Lilith said happily, holding her tight. Hugging her, "I like comforting sometimes too."

"You are incredible at it. I'll admit, that night, and day, and following morning before my death were…ecstatic." She leans in, barely an inch away from kissing Lilith.

Lilith leaned in, letting her lips touch Celestines, gently, then pulls away content.

"Is it wrong I have this need to call you a good girl after that?" A wry smirk breaks Celestine's image of seduction.

"No, I am very good." Lilith says blushing.

"No, I think it is wrong." Celeste's smirk widens, "After all, dear, you are the best."

Somehow, lightyears away, a psychic tremor across swarm space tickles at Abathur's spine.

"I was going to say something, but I think if I said it that The Inquisitor would actually shoot me."

"Katerinya, what do you think Guilliman's manhood is like." The Saint asks, lacking any fear of retribution. Katerinya is frozen by the question again, "I…don't want to be in this ship anymore." She hisses, "It's my ship."

"Oh she likes my cooking! By the way." Lilith says, "I got her to eat real food instead of intravenous Nutrient slop. I'm very convincing."

"You were doing what, Katerinya Greyfax." Celeste's gaze snaps to the Inquisitor with force behind it.

"I was working!" She tries to cover her sins with excuses. "I'm sorry dear, can I put you down? I have to…handle an unruly inquisitor."

"Yes." Lilith said, not looking at Celestine at all making direct eye contact with Inquisitor Greyfax, "Absolutely."

The Inquisitor is suddenly discomforted by Lilith's gaze as she is lowered and Celeste practically climbs onto the couch she was resting after an hour of pacing on, "I pulled you from the collection of an alien machine, Inquisitor." She speaks, gentle voice vibrating with power as a hand flattens the Inquisitor against the couch, her breath caught in the caring glare of the Saint.

"I moved armies to see you safe, I killed avatars of dark gods. Shed blood in rivers." Katerinya manages a breath at that as Celeste is fully overtop her, casting a shadow of light and dark alike. "Why, the moment I wasn't there to tell you otherwise." She leans in closely, whispering in the Inquisitor's ear.

"Did you stop eating food?" The Inquisitor has no words, her mind caught in some sort of flickering loop at the attention. Celeste leans up, tilting her head. "Oh dear, did I break her?"

"M- M- My turn." Lilith's eyes had turn to stars, and her jaw dropped. Before catching herself, "You know, I think I had a cat that stopped eating when I left too actually, so the nickname fits."

"Oh she's breathing, that's good." Celeste was focused on Katerinya for a time, answering Lilith after, "Hmm, she is rather like a violent, armed housepet." Her hand sinks into Kat's hair, ruffling it, "Can I call you Kat, Inquisitor?"

"B-by your will, Saint." Katerinya stutters.

Katerinya turns away to glare at Lilith, who is staring at her with… Adoring? Menace from across the room. Lilith said, "In my defence, I asked you multiple times to take care of yourself when we met."

The glare turns to daggers before Celeste releases her. Lilith, at that, got a tiny bit nervous. Having thought that the woman would not be allowed to approach. "Ha… I mean, we're all friends right?" She said, quickly rolling off the table.

"Far be it from me to stop a friendly quarrel.-Oh dear, the hive has changed me." Celeste realises as Katerinya jumps at Lilith with outstretched hands.

Ducking under the table as Katerinya goes over it, the six foot tall woman scrabbles to get away. Suddenly, precisely aware of what it's like to me chased by an imperial inquisitor, as she feels something reach out and snatch at her leg. Looking down, it's Katerina.

"HOW?" Lilith asks, as she tries to unfurl, unsuccessfully. "How could you… Learn to do that in a month?" A locked grip on her has somehow forced her body shut.

"I've caught you." She growls, pulling Lilith underneath her and then suddenly realizing she can't do what she wants, a fist held back. "Damnit!" She shouts, slamming it into the floor next to Lilith's head.

A wave of desire echoes off Lilith as it lands next to her. "Holy shit you were going to kill me." Lilith's eyes were wide, but not in the way they normally were for the Inquisitor. She whispers, "You know I go back to the hatchery right? You didn't have to chicken–"

Her fist impacts hard, turning Lilith's brain into stars and images of light, strength psychically enhanced. "You shouldn't have told me that." The Inquisitor growls.

"The danger makes it FUN." Lilith said biting her lip, "This is why I've been teasing you." Though, now she's taken a few blows, and isn't quite sure the words came out correctly.

"Hmm, should I stop this?" Celestine questions, considering standing up from the couch.

As blows rain down, and Lilith's essence leaves, she whispers, "No, no it's fine, I'm helping her learn to control her temper." As she's rebuilt in the hatchery. Coming out in a pulse of fluid and life-giving Essence, phantom pains of the brutal beating Katarinya gave out fading rapidly, the image of the woman so close to Celestine consumed with hateful rage burned into her mind.

Lilith, as she left the hatchery, nearly fifteen minutes later still heard thuds on Lilith's corpse. Looking down the hallway, with a snort, decided to extend a hydralisk spine, excrete the acid. Blunt the end quite a bit, then flick it at the back of Katarinya's head from across the ship hall, watching as instead of hitting her, simply knocked over her hat. Like a kitten, who had just caught the tail of an elder cat Lilith watched with excited, large pupils.

The Inquisitor stands, absolutely drenched in dripping blood that falls her fists, chest and face, eyes consumed with honed, focused, iron fury. Her hair falls behind her back, not cut in a month and looking much more like the Saint's because of that. "You."

"I think we're both getting off on this don't lie." Lilith said, as she tried to see just how angry she could Katarinya. Now wondering how far she'd go if she knew her prey would never die. "Look you're all… Dripping, and red." It was Lilith's blood of course, but she had always been a fan of pretty Truths.

Katarinya opened fire on Lilith's position, exploding a huge piece of the hallway, with a loud whistle and bang. Just barely missing her, a teasing voice from inside the ventilation yells "You missed me!~"

"I warned you." Katarinya's eyes go white, rolling back as she senses something, putting a shot through the bulkheads and catching the vent Lilith is in with a wash of superheated air, forcing her out lest she be incinerated.

"Holy Shit I love you too." Lilith says as she flops out of the Vent, trying to run in for a scrabbling hug.

The energy is dragged out of Katarinya at that, "What!?" She shouts as Lilith tackles her into a hug.

"You're awesome! No-one else is willing to shoot me! Ana nearly vomited the first time she did it on accident!" She realised that Katarinya had frozen in her arms. Gone fully stiff, completely unable to comprehend whatever weird Xeno bullshit was happening right now.

"Get off me." She shouts, but the fight is now incredibly confused, as she's faced with very odd and alien ideas mixed with affection for herself. "Get OFF." She shouted again, as Lilith slipped away, though making sure not to position herself near anything Important just in case.

Katarinya is confused, angry and freshly enraged from her personal space being violated. She storms to her chambers as Lilith scampers away, and, with a shouted, "I SEE YOU!" Striding white eyed out of her room with a blade, name written on the side. Tyrantslayer.

Now Lilith had a new game, blades had a maximum distance. The new game was trying to see if she could poke Katarinya, before she got stabbed. Though, it wasn't quite going the way she'd hope, as it seemed she would react at speeds faster than anything Lilith had ever seen. Noticing that her tendril pokes were simply just a very slow julienne of her tendrils, she wanted to… test how many Katarinya could handle at once, first trying with two simultaneous, then three, then four, then seven, all dancing in, getting sliced or batted by a blade at lightning fast speeds. Lilith watched her with careful eyes, trying to create a pattern, a rhythm, When she finally had her moment, her chance, she lunged out!

Realising she had no tendrils left. All of them torn to shreds. Katarinya eyes were milky white, and now she was smiling as Lilith slowly backed up the blade dancing closer and closer, tiny swipes, testing swipes. Then a large one that hit into Lilith's shoulder.

"Oh meow, Kitty has cl—" Her sentence wasn't finished as the tip landed directly in the grey matter ceasing her speech, and in fact all signs of life. And again, Lilith popped out of the hatchery, though now… Oddly satisfied. In a way that was most likely unhealthy.

She peeked out of the cargo bay where she hid the hatchery, but now there was an oddly cold chill down her spine. She took another quiet step out, her foot echoing on the grate. Another quiet step, as her ears listened for something.

A heartbeat enters audible range as Katarinya's voice slips into Lilith's ear, inches behind her, "You can't hide." Grabbing the other woman and shoving her against a container with a growling glare. "How do you come back."

"I told you? Didn't I?" Lilith said. "The whole fleet knows." Then she gently pats the woman on the head.

Breathing out, she releases Lilith. "You snuck one on my ship, of course you did."

"I told you I di—" Lilith stopped, "You didn't know?!"

"You told me you brought furniture." She shouts, enraged.

"We grow our furniture? We grow our housing too. It's all biorganic. It's literally furniture."

"Can you see where I would make an assumption there." Its hissed out, calming slightly.

"No!? We were going to Necromunda to save Saint Celestine, I assumed you'd want an immortal ally." Lilith said shocked, "That seemed like something that you'd… Want."

She's breathing in a rhythmic familiar pattern, a time honed relaxation technique, "You…you aggravate me."

"Yes, because the play is fun, but when it gets too much you can just ask me to stop. You seem like… You need to hurt people. Also like that's not constantly? Available to you. This seems a good compromise, plus I get combat training. Maybe one day I'll like." Lilith boops her on the nose. "Tag you."

"I see the future–" She snaps a hand at Lilith, sending it past her as the other woman dips. "Damnit!" Her eyes flicker white then back to normal at that exclamation, glancing at the future before refocusing on the present.

"Right, you see the future. Sorry."

"You're already making my blood boil." The Inquisitor growls, "But nothing I say is going to stop you."

"Then you can't see the future, there are very easy things to say to stop me." Lilith smiles. "I'm not having fun, I can't keep up with this game, I don't have the endurance for this."

"Shut up Lilith." She stabs the other woman suddenly. Leaving the blade in and storming off. "You'll get that back to me." The Inquisitor demands.

"Yes Inquisitor Kat," Lilith calls, pulling the blade out.

Seeing the Inquisitor not rise to the bait. Lilith thought a little bit harder… "Ma'am? I love you!" She yelled. She waited, listening.

Katarinya freezes again, growling under her breath about xenos witches, restarting the walk to get distance before she loses it again.

Lilith sprints, "I only said my feelings, deep down you. how the fuck are you so fast?!" She looks back and realizes that Katarinya can outrun a zergling giving her chest palpitations. Lilith could outrun cars. How was she being outpaced by a… Ooh she should say that, "Seriously, how am I being out-paced by a seven hundred year old woman?!"

"She knows how to walk." Celestine chuckles, finally intervening by grabbing Lilith and pulling her into a hug. "Sorry dear, I was just getting antsy without you." She admits as Katarinya escapes.

"It's ok, it's probably better for her heart pressure anyways." Lilith said in the hug. "This rocks, do you want me to… Teach you how to bake?"

"Sounds like fun," Celestine says as they walk around the corner chatting about Celestine's time in the hive.

"You know, seeing Necromunda I actually grew up in a place that was almost exactly like that. I even beat Katerina to your location. Well you know that I guess." Lilith said as she sticks a tendril in the oven. "Oh, you're burning cookies because this oven runs too hot." then pulling out the slightly roasted appendage. "Just needs to be turned down a bit."

"Yes, I did notice how you seemed to navigate the tunnels as if you had been there before." Celeste laughed with small rays of sun coming off of her. "Living them made many of your memories more understandable."

As Lilith rolls balls of dough out she says, "Well it's nice, now we have shared experience. Did you stay with a family, or were you orphaned like me?"

"Orphaned, a common fate in the underhive." She watches intently as Lilith deftly handles the dough, frowning, "How does it not…stick?"

"What do you mean?" Lilith asked suddenly confused, "It doesn't stick because I'm very lightly rolling it not pressing it. It's kind of like when I roll that coin arou—" She stops, "You only knew me for a day and a half you don't know about the coin do you?" She very quickly finishes the dough balls, before taking out a couple of imperial thrones.

Then she started to let them kind of roll around in her hands, letting them seem to float in airr, as if her hands were moving around the coin, instead of vice versa, then incorporating a second into the mix, letting them slide over each other, seeming to, on their own accord be stacked vertically in her palm. "I mean it took me like… Thirty? years now to get to this point."

"I can do that with my tongue, but not anything else." She looks at the coin with amazement. Watching intently as it rolls and seems to almost float. "I don't think I'm gentle enough for that."

"I actually started doing this to get gentle for everything else. I was also under the terrible impression that I would get laid a lot for knowing coin tricks? But like, you have to have a personality outside of a catchy eye-grabber I learned." Lilith said letting it roll around. "I can do them with smaller or bigger coins too, so If you think it's not big enough you're probably overthinking it."

Then she dropped the coin, "Wait what can you do with your tongue?"

"Tie stems, roll coins, bounce things. I learnt a lot from friends in the underhive." She shrugs.

Lilith looks at her with a wide smile, thinking, "I would like to see this truth then."

"Would you now~." Celestine says, grabbing Lilith by her hips and, fulfilling an earlier promise, now a month in the past, puts her against a wall. "Is this…fine?" She tilts her head, smiling up.

"It's definitely a start," Lilith whispers, kissing her neck, before biting it gently. Suckling on the skin, pulling away to see if it'd even leave a mark. "My lovely Lilith." Celestine says, "Try much harder." Her hand pushes the Infested woman back into her neck, a breath leaving Celestine as she does.

With full permission, but much apprehension, Lilith tries biting hard as if she were trying to simply sever the chunk entirely, seeing if she could break the skin, now trying too as she sucked on the bit of Celestine's neck. In response Celestine gasped, this time, though out of pain or shock was unclear. She let out a quiet noise, a heavenly pant as Lilith takes more time to dig in as it were, before pulling away to examine the spot.

She was so excited, "Oh, I'm… Strong enough to do that. Oh… Actually shit did that hurt?" Lilith says, now concerned at the… dark colour of the mark.

"Love, I go into battle daily." Celestine vibrates against Lilith, light threatening to push out of her skin, "That was…" She chuckles, "A love bite."

At this Lilith leaps onto the woman, wrapping her legs around her waist, and her hands around her neck to pull herself in close for another, deeper, more loving kissing, before following it with a sharp chomp on the bottom lip, now feeling… Mischievous.

"Wait, one second. Can we go back to the palace to get our things? I want to move in with you and Katarinya." Llilith did you ask Ana? You probably did right? Yeah you must have.

Smiling broadly, Celeste asks with a smirk, "You do want to be mine, hmm?" The smirk turns to a smile, brushing Lilith's tendrils gently.

"I think I was taken when you flew me into the sky, and showed me the entire city from the clouds." Lilith whispered, happy. Truly enthused. Overwhelmed. "You know Truth, did I ask Ana before I asked you?"

"You don't remember doing so, Lilith." She answers.

"Shit." Lilith says quietly, "Rain-check, she's going to be mad if I just say let's move without talking to her."

"Whatever your choice, I'm going to call you my Lilith now, alright?" Celeste lowers her to the ground slowly.

"Absolutely," Lilith says quietly. "I love you, I'll be back."

---

 

[Princess Scribe]

"And you're sure you're ok moving in from the Behemoth Ana?" Lilith asked, her arms full of furniture and things from the Behemoth.

They had returned to Terra momentarily, with Celestine and Greyfax. It was unclear whether Greyfax had warmed up to Lilith, or had just started to find amusement in the never ending hunt. All three of them, Celestine, Anastasia, and Lilith, were shocked at how easy it was to convince Greyfax to allow them to move in. Only a few days of pissing, moaning, and pouting about the new space being taken up occurred. Anastasia was agreeable, but had been distant since the fighting. It had been much harder both physically, and mentally on her than Lilith. Many of the things they scavenged or took from Illar were being left behind as well. Though a drone helpfully created spaces in the hold with the small hatchery to create a pseudo-bachelor apartment for them to stay in, a downgrade in space from the Behemoth.

The Witch growled in response, "Stop asking." It was probably the closest that Lilith was going to get to a yes. The move was at least going fast, as a nine-foot tall Saint replete with wings, made light work of massive loads. And Lilith, while a bit more broken and empty, was still herself.

Celestine was about to leave, when Anastasia raised an eye-brow before chucking a rucksack to her. "It's yours… Apparently." She said turning her back to the larger woman and lighting an Iho stick.

Grabbing it one handed idly, putting a dresser down with the other. Celeste opens up the bag and blinks, "You wrote me letters?" She smiles, beginning to reach in for the first one.

Lilith freezes, quietly, she can't lie. The minute she focuses on the letters then she'll remember exactly what they contained. It was… There was no real escape . She couldn't even ask her not to read them because she'd know. "There was supposed to be more, I didn't think we'd find you so fast. Trophies, chocolates and things." The voice Lilith spoke with was a broken morose whisper, "Sorry."

The smile had drifted off Celestine's face, replaced with a small, barely notable frown as she flips through the letters, golden eyes intaking the words at an incredible pace. "Lilith." She whispers to herself.

She felt like she was about to get dressed down by a teacher. That she'd been… Bad, and caught out. The joy of taking Terra, the rush to Necromunda had pushed them entirely out of her mind. "I… The idea was to show the ups and downs over… A hundred years or a dozen… Not… Just the shame of a shitty soldier."

The letters are dropped, along with the bag as Celestine crosses five steps in two, pulling Lilith up and into her, wings folding to add a second layer of comfort. "You are brave, my dearest. You are a mortal woman, possessed of nothing but blade and venom." She starts the lecture, but its not a dressing down, "You fought alongside a demigod, faced with the servants of true, incoherent Evil. You are brave, you are beautiful, you are perfection." The room-shaking volume of each exclamation would be uncomfortable if Lilith wasn't used to it, the glowing gold of Celestine's eyes practically pouring sparks.

"If I'm so perfect…" Lilith whispered, hugging her tighter, "Why couldn't I protect anyone. So many people died just for talking to me." It cut at her, she knew it was true, not a single soldier or Astartes she'd spoken to survived the trip, and Anastasia had almost been lost more times than she could count.

"Because the enemy strikes at your heart." The Saint softens, her frown turning into something sad, "Because they know they cannot marr you, so they hunt for that which they can." There's fury at that, ten thousand years of built up anger and rage that has yet to boil over, yet to incinerate everything.

It helps, knowing that someone understand, the anger helps, and Lilith focuses on it. There's something about her strength that's so comforting. They could be together forever if they planned their cards right maybe everyth—

A squawk of a crow, or something similar sends Lilith into a near panic, her body unfurling in The Saints arms as a sequencer talon replaces her hand. Her eyes go wide, and she panics trying to turn to get better eyes around her from the hug, almost fighting the saint before her mind gathers again. Then, an even darker pit forms, the shame worsens, the misery of something so special and beautiful being marred. Tainted. Infested.

Even Celestine isn't free from the touch, her head snapping to the noise, finding nothing immediately in sight, though she refuses to let go of Lilith, ready to fight this without her hands if she must. An exhalation of breath follows.

"I ripped out the essence of the Daemon that killed you, and two Mallus Extremis." She whispers, "They will not return."

"It is not the first time Skarbrand has taken my life." The Saint answers.

With that Lilith smiles, "He was torn from me, just a shred. Everything else, obliterated, the way only we can."

Nodding with a smile, a proud smile. "Then he didn't appreciate the blade through the chest?" The joke is quiet.

"Actually, oddly when he realised that it would be a true death he stopped fighting. Chaos had to steal him from me." Lilith whispered remembering the moment. "I yelled at something as big as a planet to fear me, I felt a rage larger than anything I had ever felt before, that could consume systems."

"His God." Celestine spits, "Skarbrand is cursed, a betrayer condemned, his mind flooded and destroyed. Ten thousand years ago he was a warrior. Now, a beast of war." She explains, not pitying him at all, just describing the creature.

"So then you don't think it was frightened off?" The comment was wry, an admittance of a small belief that had given her strength. "At least the Chaos Lord was scared… In the end. I need them to stop trifling with me and my loved ones…"

"They'll stop when we stop them." The living Saint commands, echoing. "The next crusade is slated in two years. Another step."

Lilith had turned to a whisper when she said there was another Crusade, "I'll be there, I've got no other plans." Then gesturing with her head to the Behemoth. "Ana, I don't think she's forgiven me for going on the push to Terra. I think… I don't think she will. Like I said, it was much worse for her."

"A psyker in this war experiences horrors we do not." Celestine answers.

"The infested psykers at least can not hear them." Lilith whispers, "The only solace I can give her, as she is targeted for the sin of loving me." Her eyes have gone hollow now, dark and empty. Her voice flat, and now a bit scared.

"We see horrid abominations, torn flesh and twisted metal. They see their true forms, and with none of my gifted strength to bear with it." The Saint whispers back, "She need not serve any more, rest is the reward of the loyal."

Another nod, "I love her, but I know she doesn't love me anymore… At least not the same way. The swarm link is… It's stronger than she suspects, and I can feel it. What do I give her? How do I let her go in peace?"

"I think, my dearest, that you should merely speak to her." Celestine's eyes dull from their bright flares to merely torches, "Love is impossible to plan."

It's true, it wasn't like Lilith could hand her a card and send her away. There'd need to be a talk, and it would be h ard. Maybe even violent. "She didn't give you any of her things did she? She didn't give me any to pack either."

"No Lilith, you know she did not." Saint Celestine whispered, squeezing her a little bit tighter before letting her go.

A final, assured nod, as she walked towards the Behemoth. To Ana, angry, arms crossed watching the slow walk of defeat. Stepping into the Behemoth as Lilith approached. Sure enough, when Lilith stepped inside, all of Anastasia's things were still right where she left them. Most of the furniture, besides a single chair that Lilith preferred, a few dressers. Drones already producing new things to replace them. A screen on the wall shut's off. Zhakarov and her must have been talking.

"I won't try to convince you to stay. Just tell me how to… How to…" There's a brokenness in her voice, "I owe you, for holding me together when no-one else would. I don't know what to give you."

"I saw this coming, you know." The Witch is venomous, "The moment you laid eyes on her, I had a sense that I'd lose you." She taps her foot, still not looking away from the star-lit view.

"Ana you stopped loving me halfway through the fight to Terra. Don't…" Maybe that's what she could give her, maybe her being the villain would be enough, "That's a lie, you're right."

"I'm in your mind you–" Anastasia hisses, "No, no, its over, I can say what I want." There's an eerie sense of freedom at those words, "I know what you're thinking Lilith. Even without power I know." The smoke of lho sticks is heavy in the air, drifting through the Behemoth in clouds pushed around with lung-beats from the massive creature. "I lost you. Your obsession tore my love out. I don't need your fucking pretty truths and lies."

She finally looks at Lilith, glaring.

If she saw so much then why didn't she know to give a fucking hug, "You're right, do you need anything?"

"I'm right?!" She shouts, "The fucking hugs, the damned hugs." Ana is growling to herself, another lho stick ignited by a flash of psychic will. "Why can't you just give me a hug." A tapping foot suddenly splits the floor.

"I did. Constantly. I told you you were beautiful. I had you call yourself beautiful, I reached out to you constantly. I begged for affection, and tried to dole out as much as I wanted. Do you need to kill me to feel better? Do you need… Money? I don't… I'm tired." The exhaustion is evident in her voice, and her body suddenly feels stiff and creaky.

"That's always been the problem. You give out to get. It never felt like love, just what I could accept as love." Ana hisses out again, "I don't need anything, Lilith. Go to your saint, to your inquisitor. I have work to do."

"If you think of something let me know. You're still family if not… Anything else." There's a finality to it, how could she argue, Anastasia had been saying it the entire time. "I had Abathur wipe memories of a gift… He's probably going to try and give it to you if you get back. I don't… Obviously remember what it is. Goodbye Anastasia."

The screen flickers back on, she ignores Lilith, discussing something important, number's heavy. Distractingly mathematical and logical whilst an angry tear can be seen for a split second falling from her face, obscured by smoke.

God I fucking suck. Lilith walked off, glad to have a smaller swarm far far away, where she can't hurt anyone. Where people are strong enough to not be able to hurt them. She walks towards the Saint, crushed, her soul macerated. She fell in love with Kerrigan, and Kerrigan would never love her. She fell in love with Anastasia, but it was never going to be right, there were too many lies at the start. She could Lie to Lilith but Lilith couldn't lie back. Fell in love with Saint Celestine, who will probably leave. Then who? Just a constantly expanding web of people whose lives she flits too. A relationship swamp, and she…

A leech

Yeah. A leech. Even if Celestine knew she was sad, she didn't care. Brave faces are sometimes for yourself more than anyone else. Her teeth grit, and her eyes shut hard trying to force away the tears. How would she fuck this up, she wondered. By feeling sorry for yourself. That… Didn't sound like her voice. Like Lilith's voice. Even now she's looking out for you. Fuck. Big smile.

"What are you griping about, Alien." Greyfax's voice slips around a corner, harsh, gritty, demanding attention. The hallway is empty besides her, flickers of white still leaving her eyes as she waits for a response, leaned against a wall with a curious, if distasteful look on her face.

"You're kind of violent. You'll understand this I think. Anastasia and I murdered Kerrigan together, and I told her I shouldn't have given up something sure for something impossible. Then Saint Celestine said she cared about me, so I fought all the way to Terra and then Necromunda. By the end of that Anastasia realised that same kind of loving the impossible feeling had sparked again. That again it wasn't her. So we broke up." Lilith explained, her jaw setting upset.

"Divorced." Greyfax corrects.

"Wait, how do you know I'm divorced? Is it that fast?!" Lilith asks suddenly, "Mother-fucker." Still she moved towards the Inquisitor.

"I'm a priest, Xenos." Katerinya chuckles, moving to the actual hall instead of loudly speaking in short sentences.

That makes Lilith laugh, just this kind of weak chuckle that brings a genuine mirth to her, "You divorced me? Before I even knew. Thanks I guess." She moves closer, though still staying out of stabbing range. "Fuck." She whispers.

Katerinya's eyes are very dark, something Lilith's noticed over the months she's known her, like pitch orbs ensconced in white. It's hard to tell what they're thinking, what they're feeling, anything about them other than where they are looking. Her face is preternaturally still at almost all times, only breaking that repose with rage, hate or violence. Still, today there's a twisted flicker of something that, eventually, could evolve into concern.

"Who gets hurt, Me, Celestine, or Anastasia? Can't imagine you'd give a shit about her." Lilith asks, looking into the Katerinya's eyes, "You see the future right? How do I fuck this one up?"

"In most futures." The Inquisitor stares, bubbling with distaste at something, "You don't." The distaste is at weakness, at the displayed doubt before her, a cruel sort of support. "You do it right, find Saint Celestine death after death, chase her to the ends of the galaxy."

"I won't hug you this time, because I liked hearing that so much. I think I'm even figuring out how to compliment you." Lilith said watching Katerinya, who looks so much like Celestine for the slightest flicker of emotion, "You gave me the best news in the most horrifying way."

The mask of stone is broken with a smirk, "That's my job, xenos. Making sure none of you are ever comfortable."

As Lilith walks by, very slowly, trying not to betray her tenseness to run, "Oh, like a Kat among mice then." Before booking it.

A lasbolt misses by inches, burning a hole in the wall next to her side, "You'll regret that!" A near-hoarse, rough cry follows Lilith into the hallways and finally, chamber of Celestine and…now her as well. The Saint has been reading the rest of the letters with a bittersweet expression, smelling their perfumed paper and then gently putting them away.

"I'm still going to keep them. Since you lose your memory each time," Lilith says, "The rucksack is to fill with memories, until it's full." She walks over and sits with Celestine. Shivering like a leaf. "She could have been a lot meaner. She wasn't. I don't know what to make of that."

"It means, dearest, that she does not hate you." Celeste is cross legged, putting the letters back into the rucksack after carefully arranging them back in order. "Would you like me to keep hold of you for the rest of today?" She offers, patting her lap.

"I don't think I want to be… Polyamorous anymore, I mean, besides whatever we call the emotional thing we have going on with Katarinya. It's not romantic but she's family." Lilith admits, "If I try to kiss another Psyker slice me in two. Please. They have all been extremely bad for my mental health." It's not true, she loved Ana, but it helped to say something else. She could have just… What? She never finished that sentence.

"I will help you be at peace, my dearest Lilith." Celestine rubs a hand on Lilith's back, bare skin on cloth, the Saint not wearing her armour yet. "If that means stopping you from loving whom you love, however, my position grows difficult." There's a warmth to her, she never is angry at Lilith, or anyone good as she understands it.

"So you're saying calling and complaining to Varynna wouldn't be the worst idea in the world." Lilith asks, looking at Celestine with large puppy dog eyes.

"I'm saying you should seek comfort where you want too, my Lilith." Her hand moves to brush Lilith's cheek with a thumb, resting on the side of her face.

She melted into the woman's touch almost immediately, she could call Varynna later if she still felt bad. This was far too nice to pass up. Finally compassion, finally someone who cared. It didn't feel transactional, or like she was on the precipice of losing it. She felt secure and comforted. Though she tried not to focus on the fact it took a literal goddess to make her feel that way. Instead focusing on how lucky she was to find exactly what she needed as she was very gently pet into a very easy peace.

Celestine sings as Lilith sinks, a beautiful background, letting the now drift into touch and sound alone. Keeping Lilith safe, safe from everything around her and inside her, putting thoughts to rest as time starts to lose meaning.

 

[Princess Scribe]

So... Yeah! She did it! Congratulations.

That's of course not the end of the story, but it's the end of the first book worth of text. We've got maybe 10 - 20k into book 2, and I'm going to let this one cook a bit. If you have any thoughts or opinions after Book 1 hit us with them. Book 2 will just be started with a new threadmark in this thread.

 

[Princess Scribe]

I generally don't like posting unless I have a 40 - 50k word backlog, because I find you can enhance narratives very well by going back and adding or changing little details when something gets decided. Balancing that with drip feeding content properly has been fun. I do love being part of someone's daily or weekly routine.

 

[Thief of Words]

Hoo boy.

"Katerinya, what do you think Guilliman's manhood is like." The Saint asks, lacking any fear of retribution. Katerinya is frozen by the question again, "I…don't want to be in this ship anymore." She hisses, "It's my ship."

Click to shrink...

This is so much better when you know Catherine Tate voiced Greyfax in the audio drama, so it's Donna Noble saying it.

 

[Princess Scribe]

Book 2 will start up some time this week I think.

This is so much better when you know Catherine Tate voiced Greyfax in the audio drama, so it's Donna Noble saying it.

Click to shrink...

This has greatly enhanced my enjoyment of Greyfax.

 

[Princess Scribe]

"Katarinya are you going for drinks with us? It's going to be Celeste, Guilliman, Me, and Varynna." Lilith said from the kitchen as she prepared dinner, "Everyone around them have a twelve gauge stick up the ass so we're going to have fun."

"No." Katarinya Grayfax was reading a report at the kitchen table, but her tone was extremely firm and to the point. "I will not be caught dead with an Alien and Varynna." What Varynna did exactly, Lilith had never found out and she was too scared of Kat's expression to try prying.

"You'll just live with the Alien and listen to—" Lilith winced as a knife found its way into her back from across the room, "You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"Of course I d–" The hissed retort from Katarinya is interrupted by an almost choral "Come along Inquisitor, you are coming." Celestine finally enters the room, having figured out the exact armour to undersuit ratio for fashionable display, removing most of its plating on her waist and legs, leaving the chest and arms covered.

With a wide smile after pulling the knife out of her back, and placing it next to the stove, Lilith said, "Yeah, hey maybe we'll even find a small animal outside the bar for you to club to dea—" Another hiss of breath and a wince, as the second knife struck much closer to where Lilith moved her own heart too. "I will burn dinner if you kill me."

The next knife is snatched out of the air by Celestine, bending slightly under her inviolable grip as she smiles warmly, "I do enjoy her cooking, Kat. Allow me this indulgence." The twitch at the name makes Celestine smile wider, turning to help with whatever's on the stovetop, or at least stare at it.

"Here try it," Lilith said holding a spoon upwards, "It's well, it would be red curry, but it's the best I could do with what we have. We never figured out pineapple on Illar, and all my attempts to recreate it are not going well." As Celeste took the spoon she was already dishing out the bowls and plates. Though careful around the Inquisitor who seemed to be especially touchy today. Though that was probably Lilith's fault even though she couldn't quite remember what stupid thing she could have done recently to torture the Inquisitor.

"Was it the pink hat? I just put it in your room." Lilith asked suddenly looking at the Inquisitor with a twitching smile.

"The what!?" Katarinya barks across the room, hand going to a charging inferno pistol immediately. Capacitor cylinder rotating threateningly as a red hue builds along the barrel.

They both knew if the hat was on the ship, that Celestine would soon have Katarinya in it. It's why Lilith waited until dinner to bring it up. "My mistake, must not have been that." The very corner of her mouth was now almost unable to keep still, even though the inferno pistol hurt so goddamn bad. It was worth it. For the last month, Lilith had been making exact copies of Katarinya's wardrobe in bright pink, and simply leaving them out. Forcing Katarinya to decide between immediately trying to destroy the "gift" or hunting down Lilith.

Once again, Celestine gently places a hand on the threatening weapon, lowering it to the ground, "Peace for now, Kat. We can discuss how you'll do something later." She's calming and soothing to everyone.

That worried Lilith Peace for now, meant that she had gone too far into brat territory. A line she toyed with often but rarely crossed.

"We have drinks with the Emperor's son and a Lord Admiral." The reminder puts a point of focus to Katarinya, breathing out her fury as she stares at Lilith.

"We have drinks with Guilliman and Varynna, how many people treat them like people. It's important that the people running the imperium remember what it's like to be a normal person." Lilith said, pointing with a fork, "Though I am curious since I'm already in trouble if you'll shoot me in front of them or not." The giddyness rising very quickly.

"I'll handle you in private. Xenos." Katarinya has no idea how that sounds to anyone else, just focusing on the hateful rage mixing in with some sort of twisted furious enjoyment at the idea.

Lilith gives a quick glance to Celeste, Look at how good I'm being letting that one go! But she knew it was probably too late for that. There was no getting out of the hole at this point, just not going any deeper. "Besides, I think if they loosen up they'd make a nice couple." Lilith added at the end, "Varynna's clearly interested and Guilliman is… Well I guess technically a god of some sort, but that's never stopped anyone. I mean, his dad sired an heir some-how. Presumably not through mitosis."

Shrugging, "You'd best ask Arch-Magos Cawl for the details, he's the one who is closest to those secrets." Celestine answers, taking another taste of the curry, obviously enjoying it.

"How would you even begin to approach the question? 'Hello Arch-Magos, I have come for secrets about the Junk of Emperor's and God's.'" Lilith snorted as she started to quickly scarf down the last of her meal, far faster than was probably polite, though she wouldn't have known it.

"I asked him that!" She laughs, "He said he had a ninety-three percent success rate on simulated battles against me. Very lovely sort."

"You started with, 'He said he had a ninety-three' and for a split second, my jaw dropped." Lilith snorted, trying very hard not to make eye contact with Katarinya, as doing so at this point would most likely spell certain death.

Celestine's laugh is a much more certain death-knell than any eye contact as Katarinya fumes at what surrounds her. "I believe…he was married?" She says after recovering, "When he was last awake, before his Stasis. I remember hearing of such things when I was young, a great celebration."

Lilith nodded, getting up and bringing her bowl to the sink before coming back, "Oh that actually sounds a bit sad to be honest. You get married, cut down, take a ten thousand nap wake up to this?" She hadn't meant to gesture anywhere near Katarinya, nor did she think she did, but the Inquisitor growled all the same, "Not you, you're loyal at least. To something. Murder mostly, but I respect that."

"I will hurt you." A curt and aggrieved response, the closest to flirting Lilith can get out of the Inquisitor.

Lilith opens her mouth, but a warning smile catches her tongue. Oh, I'm really pushing it today. "You're right, I'm sorry." Lilith finally acquiesced. It'd be bad if the two ganged up on them, at least for a while.

Finally finishing the last of her meal, Celeste speaks, "We should get properly ready, something that isn't a military uniform, Katerinya. Lord Guilliman is already trapped in his armour, he does not need further reminders." Its a command, a steel she rarely shows.

Hoping to offer a truce, Lilith proffers, "I could actually help you find something that's basically what you already like but just a bit more civillian minded? My old stuff before I you know… Stretched out would… No wait, I was shorter than you then…" She touched her chin, "I could make you something? Something that doesn't make you look like you're getting revenge for being picked last at dodgeball I mean."

"What?" Katarinya is confused at that comment.

"Did… Did you not have schools growing up? And then… Upset kids shooting other kids in those schools?" Lilith asked, looking to Celeste, "I guess you probably did you're from a hive world."

"I went to the Schola Progenium, Xenos. The teachers were veterans of decades of war. It would have not gone well." Katarinya answers, frowning at the idea. Celeste shrugs, "School is for upper-hive kids, I learnt-well, this last time-I learned to read at fifteen."

"It's very odd being the most privileged person in the room for once. Not a feeling I'm used to—" Then she thought about something Kataryna said, "If I'm divorced am I still a noble? Lilith von Illar or am I just Lilith now? Or… Lilith von Celestine or something. Lilith von Saint?" Then looking to Celestine, "I mean hypothetically, of course. If it were to happen."

"My last name is not Celestine, Lilith." The Saint smiles, amused.

"I thought you only had a second name if you were like…" What did Varynna say about that, "If you're a planetary noble or super rich? Oh your first name isn't Saint. That makes more sense."

"My last name is…" She chuckles, recalling an ancient memory, "Lady. After my old Order's title."

"Lady Lilith von Lady actually sounds kind awesome. Or… Lady Lilith von Lady cum Illar? Something like that. We should probably get ready." Lilith admits, looking at the time.

"We could make a family name together. A new one." Celestine ignores the impetus to rush, considering.

"Oh Hell yeah. We could let Katarinya pick," The smile, now brimming ear to ear, as she stares at the Inquisitor.

"Kat, could you adopt us?" Celestine stares at the inquisitor, who is wide eyed, "Greyfax is a very good last name, isn't it?"

"I actually love it, Celestine, I really do." Lilith's eyes have not stopped staring.

"I-" She's frozen, finding solace in glaring at Lilith, "This is your fault, somehow. You two planned this." Its a growl, somewhat shot through with tension. Celestine reaches across the table and ruffles her hair, causing another freezing episode.

"Asking someone to take their name isn't really a plot exactly. It's a question you ask after living with them for a while. You've penet—" Lilith stopped, "I talk like tha— You know I talk like that, you've shot me enough times at this point that we're basically family."

"I'm going to go get ready." Katarinya stands suddenly at that, stomping away to her own chambers.

"She's going to call me family some day, I know it. It's coming, like a sto—" Lilith ducks as a heated charge blasts through the kitchen, though only a single shot is fired. "Storm." A piece of wall is smoking.

"She already thinks that, without conscious thought." Celestine smiles at the blast brushing past her. "Katarinya is very lonely. The last…few hundred years were spent trapped in a…collection of an alien machine mind. Conscious." She looks at the doorway, a hint of sadness to her warmth.

Lilith nods, "Yeah, unironically I think the violence might be healthy for her at this point. Cathartic, though I'll admit I'm biased. I do wonder what that feedback loop is like though." Then she admits, "This entire thing is mostly an excuse to," Then opens her palm flat, points at where Katarinya would be, and walks two fingers off the palm. "It'd be good for her."

"You are so interesting to me, Lilith." Celestine warmly admits, "I know so much of you, but I will never understand it all."

"Because I get off on getting stabbed?" Lilith says tilting her head, "I think that's just some brain things wired wrong."

Laughing at that, "Lilith, I willingly walk into battlefields over and over again. I understand a lust for pain, though I don't quite share it." Celestine explains herself with a smile, "I just don't think like you do, I never will and that is the best part." She tilts Lilith's chin up and towards her, "My second half, completing me."

"Why would you say that I'm going to try and figure out how I'm thinking wrong about this all night." Lilith groaned, though not overly dismayed, already lost in thought. "Seeing society from not a 'boogeyman come to murder' viewpoint seems healthy. You, Varynna, and Guilliman being there means everyone for the next fifty miles are going to be on their best behaviour. she'll be the least scary of the group."

"Don't assail that image too much, its what she's built her life around. However." She nods firmly, "Katarinya needs love, and you, my Lilith, are a source without equal." The smile is back, spilling almost sunlight into the room as she stares.

An enraged roar rips through the ship.

"Fuck. I forgot about the pink inquisitor coat." Lilith says pinching the bridge of her nose.

 

[Princess Scribe]

Lilith tried to walk a fine line between a place that wouldn't lose itself if the three most important people in the Imperium walked in, and a place so upper scale that Katarinya would be unable to be comfortable. It was a delicate line she was walking, and had in secret talked it over with Varynna quite a bit. They were going to a quiet, "intimate" sort of eatery not directly tied to the military might, but wouldn't be overwhelmed by the people showing up. Though, it helped to give a bit of forewarning, and make clear the importance of discretion. Varynna's considerable wealth had done quite a bit to smooth that part over as well.

There was a moment, as they all arrived, that Lilith had realized that her life had gotten very odd. Wondering what set of choices brought her here, before stowing it for now, and waving at Lord Guilliman and Varynna who seemed to arrive together. The restaurant itself had a high rouge red ceiling, and large mirrors with gold trim. Though chandeliers were occasional, they weren't overly ornate, and the booth they were in had an all white table cloth. Brick facades decorated an accent wall, and while there was some staring, there wasn't as much fuss as Lilith was expecting, though Katarinya was already seeming ready to go feral.

Lilith decided to wear a skirt that ended just beneath the knees and a halter top, once again looking very out of place with everything around her. Seeming not to understand or not care about how she appeared to her surroundings. Maybe it was the confidence of dating a saint, or the fact that anyone stupid enough to have an opinion at the moment, would likely keep it to themselves.

As they sat down, Lilith tried to start her night as she usually did, before remembering the empire, thirty eight millenia in the future, did not have the same drinks or luxuries she remembered, "I'll have three appletinis to start, as in just bring three of them, they'll be gone by the next time you come around." She was saying this to the person seating them. High society she was not.

"You have no idea what an Apple, or a Martini is do you?" Lilith said as the hostess looked at her somewhat blankly, which urged Lilith to sigh. "Varynna you know what apples are," She said as the hostess stood awkwardly, "What the hell is the closest thing? I just want a sugary drink that's a bit sour."

"Get her a Tanith Sour, mix in sugar." Varynna chuckles, waving the waiter off.

"A ton of it." Lilith added for good measure. "Fuck my life up." The absolute dour scowl from Katarinya was somewhat worth it. Though Lilith tried to force herself to remember that she wasn't here to torture her.

"Varynna you never call anymore," Lilith said, "We got to Terra like three four months ago, what have you been up too?" Her eyes at Varynna were pleading as she tried to make contact with the other swarm member, Make small talk, pretend this is normal, you and I are the only one capable of faking this. Actually maybe Celestine can as well.

"Mostly gossiping about you~!" Varynna smirks, immediately bouncing back into her games, a terrifying of normality to a situation that's far beyond it. "You're always a treat, as I'm sure you know." Rolling through the words with a practised tone.

"I do get around," Lilith says with a smile, before wincing, "Is it that you set me up for those, or I just fall into them?"

Putting a hand to her chest in a false display of hurt, "Me? Setting you up? Why, it's almost like you think ill of me!" The energy she displays is drawing everyone in, a whirlwind.

"Quite the opposite," Lilith says, immediately drawn in like a moth to flame, "I just know how much you'd love to catch me." The comment ignites that furious fire in Varynna as well, bringing her back to old, gorgeous memories that tug a smile on her face.

"As far as I remember, I did. You called the point." She teases, brushing nails on Lilith's hand in a ghost of a touch.

"I was doing you a favour, you wouldn't have been able to keep up." Lilith said, tongue between her teeth. "Oh also I'm divorced. I lost the Swarm, and pretty much all my furniture."

Laughing, Varynna comments, "So she did take the hound?" Making Celestine and Guilliman look sharply at her, though she doesn't visibly notice.

Lilith snorted, "Yeah, and she was the phone. It took me a while to figure out how to get back in touch with Zhakarov who then said they were just coordinating around me with Ana, you and everyone else which honestly? A load off my mind."

Varynna nods at the comment, delighting in Lilith in a way few others do. "Worry not, they had a fine strategic mind curbing their more interesting decisions."

"Probably for the best, they're the kind of smart that gets really stupid, really quick." Lilith said morosely, thinking specifically of Zharkov… And now Anastasia. "I got to keep my own hatchery though, which is nice, and I have a few drones so I could always start up again if a place is empty and somewhat sustainable for life."

Guilliman finally speaks, having merely observed the situation until now, "I am either sorry for your loss, or gladdened by your freedom, Lady Lilith, I am not sure which."

"I was sad at first to be honest?" Lilith said as she finished the second of her sours, not sure when they arrived, "But it's like… She kind of loved me in a way where she hated me? Like, sometimes you like the idea of someone more than who they actually are. Then some people are exactly who you think they are." The third one isn't sipped so much as slammed, "I think the great thing is at least, is that it seems I am once again my own brood (Because I've made myself my own brood.) Which is nice, I've been really gung ho about the imperium so knowing Illar isn't going to send an angry letter saying how awful I am at my job is welcoming. Because I'm actually pretty damn good at my job."

She's already waving down the waiter again, but this time with four fingers up. "So yeah, still a bad-ass warrior and immortal. Just not ultra rich, or you know wielding swarms of armies, yet." Lilith snorted, "Yet… BUT! I finally figured out how to make Coconuts again, and Coconut rum I think."

"Coconuts?" Celestine asks curiously, sipping at her drink. From previous experience, the Saint is a lightweight when it comes to her liquor, so she's being careful. "What are those?"

"There's these long skinny trees and that have huge palm fronds, which are like leaves, but they're the size of fans. These hard as hell fruits that will brain you fall out. Where they were connected to the tree has these soft spots, and when you crack them open they're filled with a juice. Pretty much everything but the shells is edible, and the juice is almost one to one with blood plasma." Lilith opens a clutch and starts rummaging, "I was going to pre-game a bit, but decided against it, but the rum turned out pretty good. Just careful, it's twice as strong as it tastes."

She pulls out a fairly large metal flask handing it Celestine. The strong synthetic coconut smell wafts off it in waves, though the Imperials would likely not recognize it as synthetic. Instead simply recognizing a liquor that smells like some sort of sweet creamy candy. "Oh wait, you guys drink like fish, it's fifty-proof."

Celestine takes a sip, nodding, "This is going to make me insensate in ten sips, I can feel it." Handing it to Varynna who gulps it approvingly, "I could use a flask of this, and a few barrels. I could work and drink!"

Guilliman sips at it, nodding, "It is a tad too weak for my tastes, could you make it to…one hundred and fifty proof?" He asks, making everyone but Celeste look at him.

"Actually, yeah probably, I figured out how to make one-ninety-five at one point but then it was basically just paint thinner. The one cool thing about learning genetics and bio-science for so long is that agriculture is basically a cinch." Lilith says, thinking back to the Queen's on Illar, "Like we'd met our dye tithe in I think, three years?"

"Indeed, recalculating the Tithe of your world is a constant effort of mine." Guilliman nods, "But the work is soothing at times."

"Yeah you seem like a guy who likes spreadsheets." Lilith admits, as four more drinks are placed in front of her, "By the way I'm broke, but like." She gestures at her current company, "One of you has got this right? I was only able to get like… a single metric tonne of thrones off the ship. Anastasia hid the rest."

Varynna laughs loudly at that, almost flailing out of her seat whilst Guilliman sighs, "Worry not, the Imperium's coffers are vast." Shaking his head with a mirthful smile, as if remembering something pleasant.

Lilith sighed with relief, before holding up another four fingers to the waiter, and continuing to drink, now on her sixth glass. "Oh no, did she only have a tonne?" Lilith said quietly when Varynna started laughing.

Varynna recovers whilst Celestine explains, "My dearest Lilith, you could live comfortably for a century with a tonne of Throne Gelt." Patting Lilith on the cheek as she's obviously getting drunk, rapidly, even while trying to not drink too fast.

"Oh! Good!" Lilith said happily, as she finished her… Well she lost count at this point. "Oh, I also saw Necromunda and learned that my planet way back when was basically a hive world. It was extremely familiar, if a bit more tunnelled." Did she always used to talk about herself this much? Yes? Probably. "How's sculpting going? Made anything fun lately?" She asked Varynna.

"I made a sculpt of you and Celestine! My confessor said it must never see the light of day." Varynna smirks, "So I displayed it on the bridge, safely away from any starlight."

"If I'm rich I'll rent it from you for our wedding," Lilith says before choking on her own drink a bit, "When, if. You know, someday." Then thinking, "Fuck there's a crusade in two years actually isn't there?" Romance was clearly in the drink, and the drink was gone.

"Are you proposing-Oh sorry!" Celestine's voice shatters a glass on a nearby table as she briefly loses control of herself, flushed and ditzy as she is, a broad smile, hazy golden glow and gorgeous, almost floating hair. "Are you proposing?" She settles on the words much quieter this time, though the entire establishment, and likely everyone outside already heard it.

Lilith looks to Varynna, and thinks Do you have two rings on you by chance? Wait nevermind she'll know that wasn't planned. "I wanted too, but I didn't really consider how little time there actually was to get all that done. I was going to wait so it didn't seem so…" She makes a hand gesture that is very clearly.

"Oh shush Lilith, my dearest lovely Lilith." Celestine throws herself over the other woman, almost ensconcing her.

"Oh! Oh. You are like a real lightweight, featherweight even." Lilith says suddenly, "We've never really tested it vigorously." Though she's very much enjoying the attention. "I don't think you're going to remember this so I'm going to propose when you're sober and I'll like… Plan something, do it right."

Celestine giggles, a sharp, adorable sound, "But I want you on one knee! Please? My dearest, indulge me!" It's an obvious beg, but somehow still refined and elegant.

"Oh, wow" Then suddenly Lilith yelps, "Hey, that hand is going very far south for a bar."

Stopping at Lilith's waist with a lustful smile, Celestine says, "I disagree, look how flushed you are." The saint says, practically red herself from the glass and a quarter she had.

"You had one glass." Lilith said shocked, "You're like eight-eleven or something." The hand slips underneath the waistband, "Ok!~" Almost singing. "Compromise, let me do the proposal right and I'll be on both knees tonight."

Laughing as she falls backwards out of her chair, Celeste says, "Why would I barter for what I'll already get?"

"Compromise and you'll be on both knees tonight." Lilith says, leaping up and biting Celestine's lip hard because she knows she can. The bite rapidly turns to a kiss as the lip bruises in real time, on the ruins of a chair Celestine has to be stopped lest this far exceeds the bounds of propriety, smiling lasciviously. "I think I want tonight to be…mysterious. Don't tell me anything, I won't tell you anything."

"That." Lilith says mischievously, as she leans in, "Sounds like someone else is getting flustered for once." Getting just close enough that Celestine slightly parts her lips before pulling away mischievously.

"I could have told you that, my sweetest." Celestine chuckles, hands lingering in the air where Lilith just was.

"How you doing Kat—" Then very quickly adding the rest of her name, "arinya Greyfax Inquisitor misses."

Katarinya downs her own drink, something that smells acrid and terribly rough, burning nostrils just by contact alone. She's not drunk, but getting there even with her gulping pace. "Fine." She twitches, not at Kat, but at "misses", a lasbolts retort suddenly being recalled.

Seeing that, and letting the liquor wash over her, "You can snap back at me with insults, none of us are like… Pulling rank here, and even if we did I think my official title would be like…" She looks at Celestine who is currently being brought a second chair, "Do Saints have Concubines?"

"I was thinking more wife, but if you are a concubine!" Celestine laughs, word once again sounding out loudly, "I can put you in one of those outfits, the ones with chains for my…what is it again? The wheel device." The Saint admits to possessing such a thing casually, bringing stares.

Lilith's eyes go wide, as she looks at the rest of the table, "Ah!~ We~ I forget you just say things sometimes. It's really awesome and liberating. It's just called a wheel, or a bondage wheel." She finally finishes, "And they already come with cuffs. Wait no, the Enfettered wheel you mean."

"I have no idea-You know!" She switches topics suddenly, "I have-had, I had a friend you'd have liked. I met her once on a battlefield before she passed."

Oh she's one of those drunks, "Yeah," Lilith said with a smile.

"Anais, well, Saint Anais! She was like me, but add two more feet in every direction." Gesturing at her chest and hips firmly, "I was baffled when I saw her. Like a sudden vision overcame me." Celestine is smiling brightly at the memory, "But the Emperor has not seen fit to bring her back yet, do you know what she was a saint of?"

"No? What?" Lilith asked smiling, looking at her patting her leg.

"Protection, she was protection." The Saint smiles even brighter somehow, "On Kaurava, she took on the blows that any Sister on planet faced, every injury they had on her body. It saved the convent, but even we have limits."

Lilith stifled a quick memory of her taking someone else's pain for eight fucking weeks, but let it think. "You know, when you described being 'baffled' when you saw her. I was thinking pretty much the same thing when we met. It was hard to believe you were real. Like, an actual fucking angel was far out of my realm of things I believed were possible, and then you were there you were there." She stops, slurring her words a bit, "And then there you were, just beautiful as fucking… fuck. Just out and about, existing perfectly in the world."

"I know, I spotted you from across the room. Before you ever spoke to me, I found you refreshingly direct. So little fear, no apprehension. I was nothing but a dream to you." She confesses, eyes glowing with sparks falling from them, a sign of excitement.

"A dream that turned wet real quick," Lilith said crassly with a laugh, "I swear to god emp —hiccough— emperor I nearly died the minute I saw you."

Then sluggishly, "I do wanna be Lilith and Celestine von gra—hiccough—" Then she stops herself, "Whatever name we choose. Our little —hiccough— family."
Celestine stands up, grabbing Lilith and pulling her up to her chest before stomping around the table with an armours clink, grabbing Katerinya as well. "Don't worry Primarch, you can enjoy the night with the woman who can't stop thinking of you!" Celestine throws Varynna under the moving bus.

As this is happening Lilith has become a stream of commentary, when Katerinya is picked up she starts mumbling, "Wait she's ace, don't she doesn't wanna— Oh. that's not what's happening. okay." Then, "Oh my god, She spent fifteen hours picking a dress to be perfect for you. please get on that you silly man. There is no-one better for you." Now fully slipped into the drink

"What the hell is going on?!" Katerinya shouts past her haze, grabbing the bottle of rotgut Amasec she was downing in a lightning reflex.

Lilith giggles, "You're marrying us! All of us."

"Well first, we're going to have a sermo-No, wrong gothic, conversation!" She's kicked open the door and with a flare of wings, ascends up.

"Is she her flying drunk safe?" Lilith asks Katarinya, "Are we in danger? Ooooh wind is cool on my faaaace."