Editing Story:Love Can Bloom (section)

== New chapter writespace ==
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
This contains additional written content from a random Anonymous that has been transcribed, but has not yet been edited. Flash forward content for Chapter 11?
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
''Life in a exodite world wasn't so bad'' thought Taldeer as she delicately rubbed her belly, she was on the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and the baby growing inside her was already perceptible months ago.

She opened the windows of the small hut LIIVI and her built together on top of a hill, up there it was possible to look the crop fields that feeded the small human village nearby but more importantly it was possible to watch LIIVI work with the locals on those fields.

''From trained assassin to comunnal farmer.'' "not even I could have predicted that!" she said out loud, with a small smile on her face. The pregnancy took it's toll on her, she couldn't stay up for long before she felt tired and necessited to rest again, she walked slowly back to their bed almost drifting back to sleep but the sound of broken plates on the kitchen didn't allow her this possibility.

"Is everything alright, Lydia?" Taldeer yelled from bed.

"I'm sorry lady Taldeer I've got distracted and let a plate fall to the ground." the young and embarassed woman replied as she walked to the room where the soon to be mother was located.

"Don't worry Lydia, if there is one thing I've learned from my all years is that the unexpected is a certanty." The farseer said with a motherly smile.

"Care to help get up?"

"Are you certain madam, wouldn't be better for you to rest?" Replied the nurse

"No, I've stayed in this room long enough! I need some fresh air!" Lydia helped Taldeer to get off the bed, she guide her into the kitchen that her and LIIVI built not so long ago. Although it certainly did not have the same explandour as the place she had in Ulthlwe the little cabin was certainly more cozy.

She could see the pieces of the plate, "Sorry?", the young woman said again, " I will buy you a new one after I get back to the village".

"It would certainly help." Taldeer stopped on the front porch taking a deep breath and with her eyes closed she began speaking again "The people of your village they still don't trust me do they?".

" You have to forgive them lady Taldeer, even though your people allowed us to live here they don't allow us to go near their settlements and they only come to us when it's time for the harvest to collect their share."

Taldeer opened her eyes again and with a sigh took some more steps to get out of the porch, from the view of their frontyard it was possible to see the lush jungles that covered most of the planet, (that's where the exodites are) she thought. Although she hasn't seen one of her kind since Kronus she had no wish to contact with the true masters of this planet.
</div>
</div>


<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:800px">
This contains the transcription of 5 chapters and 2 other sections of content, concluding the (unfinished) Love Can Bloom, set after the final chapter of the original (10). It is not at this time reviewed by the wiki or its staff and is therefore not in any such manner 'official' or 'legitimate canon'.
--[[User:Woodbundle|Woodbundle]] ([[User talk:Woodbundle|talk]]) 01:57, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
===Chapter Eleven===
The daemon, still gloating inwardly at Taldeer, walked seductively towards LIIVI, his injured body lying, half sitting up, against a pile of rotted wood and crumbling, rusty pipes.

“You will not be given that which you seek, you festering beast!” Taldeer cried out, her heart hammering in her chest. “You shall-”

“Be quiet, girly. When I am done with him, he will quite happily… submit to me in a most special way. The way you wish that he would submit to you.”

“You think me a, a perverted, a disgusting ''thing'' like you? Living for pleasure, for pain, lusting for anything you see?” Taldeer stammered out.

The daemonette turned back towards her. “I will break his mind, I will break his heart, and I will break his soul. The ''delicious'' suffering that you will be given by Slaanesh will be nothing to the torture I will grant him.” With a victorious smile, the daemon turned back to LIIVI.

While the monster’s back was turned, he had tried to reach the helmet beside him, but the belt restrained him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his pistol lying only a few meters away. He closed his eyes, recalling his training. It was, ironically, easier, if not less painful, with the daemonette’s violation of his memories. His head pounded, but he could see, dimly, his past, hear distorted voices. His mind clicked. Slowly, he exhaled, and dislocated his thumb bone with a quiet crack. Opening his eyes, dilated with pain, he noticed that it was turning back towards him, slipping his hand out of the belt and closing his eyes. Lost in its perverse thoughts, the daemon did not seem to notice as his eyes flitted closed.
 
	“Hello, sweetie.” said the daemon in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Smiling to itself - rather, hideously grinning - the vile thing bent down towards him.

	“Are you awake, vindy? There is so much I have planned for you.”

Taldeer, the room spinning dizzily around her, helplessly watched as the daemon approached LIIVI’s helpless form, across the house. She closed her eyes, feeling the ocean existence surrounding her. With all the grace a wounded Eldar could muster, she hooked the Vindicare’s discarded Exitus rifle with her foot. The disgusting thing, in its arrogance, failed to notice her. When a flash of sudden motion came from Taldeer’s direction, the Slaaneshi creature spun around, its features contorting with rage.

“So you have chosen-” the daemonette began to say, only for the bottom half of its head to be split apart. Taldeer raised the Exitus rifle again, and a raspy gasp left the daemon.

“How naughty, Farseer. Imagine the ''fun'' we could have...”

The rifle kicked back again, a hastily aimed shot sailing through the creature’s abdomen. As the vile interior daemon’s interior was pulverized with a loud crack, LIIVI fixed his hand with a painful twinge. Releasing his breath, he slipped his other arm out of the belt. Filled with rage, the daemon lurched towards Taldeer. Pulling back the trigger again, the tiny snap of her finger contracting onto the trigger was overwhelmed by a click from the firing chamber of the rifle, exclaiming its lack of ammo.

“Ohhhhh,” spit out the daemon, “Has the little Eldar no weapons?”

The room around the creature contracted, metal piping and wooden boards from the ceiling collapsing onto the floor in a great cacophony. The whispers of the Great Enemy grew louder in her mind as it approached. The rifle fell from Taldeer’s hands, and she felt weighed down as if by the weight of all Ulthwe. It felt as though the warp itself was trying to rip through her mind, to shatter her skull just as the head of the daemon was shattered. Behind the daemon, LIIVI shifted, but with all its attention on Taldeer now, consumed with rage, it failed to see anything but the helpless Farseer.

“Let me show you the joys of the Prince of Exc-” it began rasping, as the cracked head began to fuse back together, only for a jagged piece of metal piping to be roughly forced into the crack, eliciting a screech from the ruined face. 

LIIVI staggered out from behind it, grabbing a thick wooden board. He hefted it above his shoulder, falling to one knee with the exertion, as the daemon turned back to him. With all his remaining strength, he drove the board into the shattered head, crushing it with a bloody spray. As LIIVI fell to the floor, unconscious, the presence of Slaanesh flickered in the house, and the voices in Taldeer’s head faltered. Her arm twitched, and extended towards her enemy. Lightning played around her fingers, and a bolt of psychic energy tore into the daemonette. Its body was shredded, dissolving into warp fire as the daemon was banished once more into the warp. The power of Slaanesh finally gave out, the illusion upon the house faded, and its true form, mold covered walls and crumbling roof, became visible. Taldeer’s vision swam before her, and the threat gone, she joined LIIVI in blackness.


----


	Taldeer was the first to regain consciousness, with every joint feeling as if it had been frozen. Her neck, owing to the inopportune position in which she had fallen asleep, felt like the roof had collapsed on it, and the manipulation of the daemonette had left her with a throbbing headache. Her eyes, half open, took in her surroundings. The building looked as though it could collapse at any moment, with a roof rent by war and walls charred by flames spewed mindlessly by constantly battling factions. There was a form lying among the rubble. Taldeer’s eyes snapped open.

	“LIIVI! Can you hear me?” she called.

Struggling to move, she crawled over to where he lay. A gust of freezing air brushed through his hair. While he wore still his suit, it had been torn by the vicious spear of the Grey Knight, and his helmet, visor cracked near the edge, lay amongst the rubble of the house. Despite the freezing air, his skin was still reddened and blistered by the incendiary bombing. His pulse was weak, his skin cold to the touch, but he was still alive. The early morning sun shone with pale light through the building’s hole-ridden roof. Putting her hand under his head, and grabbing him about the waist with her other arm, she pulled him to a largely intact wall opposite the shattered door.

	“Wake up,” Taldeer murmured to him. He remained silent and still. 

“Wake up!” Taldeer shouted in desperation. LIIVI’s eyes, blinking at the light outside, slowly opened.

His voice, quiet and hoarse though it was, came through clear. “Are you okay?”

“Am I okay?” Taldeer replied, with a hint of a wry smile on her face, “Are you okay? Can you even walk?”

“Primary objective: protect you,” he replied, with more strength.

Taldeer sighed. “I am… unhurt. But you are not.”

LIIVI staggered to his feet, nearly falling onto Taldeer. Clearly in great pain, he retrieved his Exitus rifle.

“I must protect you.”

Taldeer walked to him as he began to stand. Grunting with the strain on his injured body, he lost balance, and was caught by Taldeer, who gently lowered him to the ground. Looking into his eyes, she gently told him,

“Wait here, mon-keigh, I shall find something to help you.”

In a cupboard nearby, mostly clean sheets and a half-looted medical kit lay unharmed. What little salve was left she spread over LIIVI’s face, bandaging him with torn sheets. LIIVI sat up.

“We must leave immediately. The danger in staying in one place is too great.”

“I have been thinking on how to handle that problem. If we are to ever escape, we need some kind of aerial vehicle. We can reach my Wraithship and…”
And what? Her heart sank as she considered the enormity of her failure. She had not stopped the Necrons. Most of her army had been slaughtered, and if their soulstones had not been recovered…

“If Ronahn were here...” she trailed off.

“Who is Ronahn?” LIIVI inquired.

“He is my… he is a ranger from the craftworld. He is working with another Farseer, Idranel. They have little contact with Ulthwe, and I… he will not return for many years.”

Using his Exitus rifle as a prop, LIIVI stood up again, and picked up his pistol. The note of sadness in her voice had touched him in a way he could not understand. He put on his helmet, and holding his improvised walking stick in one hand, gently put his hand on her arm. Straightening up, Taldeer turned to her companion, who looked as imposing as any of the mon-keigh.

“We must go to Pavonis. That may be our only hope to escape.”

Under the mask, LIIVI frowned. “I participated in the battle for the city, if for a short period. Pavonis is heavily fortified. It would likely take an army to get in.”

Smiling slightly, Taldeer replied, “Not for an Eldar. And, perhaps, not for a mon-keigh assassin.”


----


Lukas Alexander mused over the Vindicare situation. It should have been impossible for him to betray the Imperium like this. Whatever training given to such a legendary being should have erased any sense of rebellion, any sense of self. They weren’t people, he reasoned, but weapons, powerful weapons.

How can a weapon think for itself?

That Inquisitor, too… he was hiding something. If he knew something about the assassin, and was hiding it from the Imperial Guard, the blood of any men who died to the Vindicare would be on those hands. Hiding behind his position, behind his organization as he might, he would have the Inquisitor’s head if he betrayed them. In frustration, he slammed his fist on the command chair. Startled, the vox operator turned to the Governor-Militant.

“Sir?” 

“Don’t mind it,” Alexander replied, hiding his embarrassment, “What is the status of our forces at the spaceport?”

“None of the Blood Ravens’ significant forces have arrived yet, but our scouts reported armored columns, complete with artillery vehicles, en route to Pavonis.” With a worried look on his face, the guardsman added, “We should arrive before they do.”

Two hours later, the Baneblade rolled into Pavonis to the cheering of guardsmen. The Enginseers had done their best to repair the damage done to the city by the Tau, and the battle to claim it from them. However, a lattice of cracks filled the spaceport. Alexander’s vox operator relayed orders to fortify the walls, but the Governor-Militant’s air of brooding thought was almost palpable.

“The battle ahead will be bloody indeed,” spoke Lukas Alexander, as the Space Marines began to pound his fortifications.


===Chapter Twelve===
	Doing their best to support each other, Taldeer and LIIVI stumbled across the cratered landscape. It was, the Eldar acknowledged, less than ideal terrain; though many of the craters were quite deep, it would not be difficult for a scout to spot the pair. Despite the dirt and dust which had settled upon Taldeer’s armor, the white wraithbone stuck out like a titan against the charred, black-brown earth.

	“Taldeer. Are you sure that the breach in the wall is still there?”

	“We attempted to take Pavonis before. The Imperial Guard… repelled us. Not without cost,” she replied without looking back, “The structure of the city was severely damaged. It is unlikely that they have repaired the breach, even if it were identified.”

	“I shall enter first.”

	“Why?” Taldeer felt genuinely confused, and though, she hoped, the mon-keigh trusted her, his mind was sealed against any foreign power.

	“If there is a guard placed on the breach, they must not be allowed to harm-” LIIVI suddenly broke off, hissing “Down!”

	“Xenos!” came the metallic shout, “Perish in the holy name of the Emperor!”

	Taldeer’s heart skipped a beat. Had they been discovered? The Imperial Guard could be cowed; the Orks, deceived. An army of Space Marines, however, could only be fled from. Then, a new voice spoke up.

	“Yew wan’ us ta do wot, humies? Ya gotta lot of dakka comin’ to yas if yer gunna ‘tack these boyz. Go gettem, lads!”

	“Orks,” muttered Taldeer, both relieved and irritated, “And the battlefield lies in our path.”

	“Infiltrate behind them and escape?”

	LIIVI peered up over the edge of the crater in which they lay, his helmet display flickering. All signs indicated that both flanks were flooded by scouts and Orks.

	“If we went through the middle of the battlefield, they may miss us in the crossfire. We would be less fortunate in an attempt to go around.”

	“And we may be obliterated in the crossfire instead,” retorted Taldeer. She sighed, and granted, “But this may be our only hope to reach the spaceport.”

	The threads of fate twisted, ran into and out of each other, circling around and leading to the same destiny as before. Taldeer looked into that fate, and saw, in a swirling current of fog…

	An explosion rocked the ground next to her, and she snapped back to reality as a shockwave behind her pushed her into the ground, with an unnoticed snap at the back of Taldeer’s armor.

	“Taldeer!” exclaimed LIIVI, ducking down to her side. She moaned groggily, and, though lacking the vision of Eldar, LIIVI found a path through the charging Ork horde. Breathing deeply and ignoring the searing pain in his side, LIIVI lifted Taldeer in his arms. Almost stumbling with his burden, he rushed across the battlefield. Through some grace of the Emperor, LIIVI felt, the Orks failed to see him, and the Space Marines, more concerned with the oncoming mob, ignored a distant, small figure darting past the Orks.

	With the battlefield behind them, LIIVI set Taldeer down onto a small patch of dried grass.

	“Are you hurt?” inquired LIIVI, a strong note of concern entering his normally flat voice.

	“I am…” Taldeer began, but her voice was cut off as her eyes widened at the beast which stood behind him. “Ork!”

	LIIVI twisted around, pulling out his pistol, despite the pain in his side, which now felt like white fire. He raised his pistol and fired at the Ork as its shoota made contact with his shoulder. His bullet penetrated the beast’s knee, eliciting nothing but a roar of pain. As LIIVI hit the ground, he let out an audible groan, nearly losing consciousness with the pain. The Ork threw back its arm to bring down the enormous axe on LIIVI’s prone form, only for the pulsating sound of a shuriken pistol firing to coincide with shards of crystal ripping through the enormous head. The Ork’s momentum carried it backwards, landing with an enormous thud on the scarred ground.

	“You saved me,” LIIVI blankly stated, holding his throbbing side.

	“Perhaps… perhaps escape is only my secondary mission,” came the Farseer’s reply, brushing a strand of loose hair out of her eye. She smiled.
“Pavonis should be close, but if the Space Marines were here,” she murmured, looking into the distance, “They are already there.”


----


A Blood Ravens Librarian saw a glint on the battlefield, reflecting psychic lightning as it annihilated a cluster of Orks. A psychic echo emanated from it, he realized.

	“Brothers,” he called, “There is a… relic… on this battlefield. We must retrieve it. Brothers Martis, Reynold, accompany me.”

	As the nob leading the horde was killed, a bolter shot obliterating its head, the Orks fled the ruin wrought by the Blood Ravens, and retreated from the battlefield. The crystalline treasure lay near the edge of a crater, embedded in a jagged piece of Eldar wraithbone.

	“Behold, a… lost talisman of our chapter’s lost past!” he exclaimed.

	“A chapter relic? Let us thank the Emperor, brother. We shall protect you as you recover it.”

	The Librarian smiled to himself. Azariah Kyras would appreciate deeply this offering. Perhaps, even, this Eldar spirit stone would allow him to bring about the final end of those detestable Eldar. The Eldar to whom it had belonged, if not dead, would be soon, torn apart by a clash of Imperial Guard and Space Marine forces.


----


	“Low on ammo,” LIIVI muttered to himself as he reloaded his pistol. Taldeer cast a sidelong glance towards him, and was given the less than comforting reply, “We should not need much.”

	The walls on each side of the breach had collapsed inwards, leaving only a thin gap. A network of cracks extended along the length of the entire wall.

	“We can still get through, but… it was not so damaged when my forces pulled out,” Taldeer mused. An explosion in the far distance answered her question, “The mon-keigh battle over the spaceport. If we tarry long, we still shall become casualties of war.”

	“I will not allow that to happen.”

	As LIIVI ducked into the breach, Taldeer stood at the crack, listening for any sound. It was silent for one minute, but as she prepared to go in after him, she heard a whisper from the other side of the wall.

	“It is safe, Taldeer.”

Taldeer awkwardly stepped through the gap. Her wraithbone spear, affixed on her back, scraped dust from the stone above her, trickling down into her eyes. She regretfully thought back to her helmet, lost somewhere among the ruins of Kronus. The sounds of battle from the far end of the city grew more intense, a fitting reminder of the cost of war.

“A terminal, Farseer,” LIIVI informed her, stepping carefully to the computer interface. It flickered as power and data lines were disrupted and almost instantly restored.

“I… I think that the space capable craft are in the contested end of the city. To go into that battlefield would risk violating the primary objective,” LIIVI said, still examining the computer screen, “There are small shuttles here, but they cannot reach orbit.”

Taldeer looked down to the ground, trying to not reveal her crushed hopes.

“I think that I can,” LIIVI muttered, mostly to himself, manipulating the terminal controls, “Yes. Tertiary objective accomplished.”

Before Taldeer could ask what his tertiary objective was, LIIVI raised his arm, as he placed the data device he had removed from the terminal into an empty ammo pouch, and pointed to a small structure nearby, “We can procure a small transport shuttle there.”

“Then… we must go now, before the enemy reaches us here.”

The two boarded the shuttle, a disappointing hunk of metal, particularly by the standards of Taldeer, and initiated takeoff procedures. With a whine of protest from its engines, the shuttle raised into the air.

“We have cleared the spaceport, and-” LIIVI began, looking over the many unfamiliar components of the vehicle’s piloting system, only for an explosion outside to throw both Human and Eldar to the floor.


----


“Governor Alexander, we saw a fleeing shuttle, likely populated by fleeing guardsman,” the vox operator relayed.
“Did they shoot it down?”

“They… they fired a krak missile at it, likely a glancing hit. Took out the engines; if they are still alive, they won’t be when the shuttle crashes.”

The Baneblade shook slightly as its armored hull deflected an explosion. 

“Sir, Space Marine predator tank, bearing down on us. Annihilator pattern.”

“Destroy it before it can get a shot off,” Alexander commanded, just as the twin-linked lascannon emitted a beam of directed energy. A small patch of the interior hull glowed red-hot.

“Now!”

The main turret swiveled, and tore apart the tank with a single, earth-shaking blast.

“Sir, our forces in the northeast quadrant have been routed, the commissar is dead!”

“Overall status of our forces?”

“We’re… sir, we’re being torn apart by the Space Marines. Our few remaining forces report heavy anti-armor weaponry being moved in.”

“Reinforcements?”

“At this rate, sir, we’ll be consigned to the rolls of history before they get here.”

Alexander looked solemnly ahead of him, finally exclaiming, “We cannot allow this world to fall! There must be a new day, a new dawning of the Imperium on this planet.”

“We cannot win if you aren’t here to lead us, sir.”

The Governor-Militant sighed. “Issue the fall back order. This battle… is over.”

As the massive tank rolled out of the spaceport, the vox was flooded with communications. Casualty lists, delivered by the bloody and maimed survivors, requests for reports on the situation status, calls for help from abandoned guardsmen. Lukas Alexander gave no answer, and remained in brooding silence all the way back to Victory Bay. The arrogant Inquisitor, the traitor Vindicare as he stalked a wounded Eldar, bolter rounds shredding his soldiers played through his mind. He came to a conclusion, a way to show that this would not be a failure.

The Vindicare would die, and he would personally crush the head of that arrogant Farseer Taldeer.


===Chapter Thirteen===
A smoking pile of metal hurtled across the sky. Inside, stuttering alarms blared, lights dim through a haze of smoke. Sparks flew out of the wall, and the failing computer registered new damage.

“We’ve lost,” LIIVI coughed out, “We’ve lost our port engine.”

“What does it matter now? We have failed,” Taldeer said bitterly, “What hope do we have now to escape?”

“Survive now. Escape later. I have a plan,” LIIVI said, his flat voice betraying no hint of fear. He had likely been in many situations far more dangerous in his career, Taldeer reasoned.

“Can you land the shuttle?”

“Landing is not an option, Taldeer. I may be able to slow the crash, but the damage is extensive.”

“I may be able to slow the shuttle.”

“Trying to stop the shuttle could harm you.”

“I am a powerful seer of my people, and I do not see that we have a choice.”

Trees zipped past the cracked windows of the shuttle as it neared the ground. Thrusters intermittently fired, making no visible difference in speed. The Farseer closed her eyes and reached out with her mind.


----


Skullbeata turned from his salvage to look in the direction of a loud roar.

“Wot’s that there?” he said to himself.

A glowing object was falling from the sky. Although partially obscured by the smoke pouring from it, the light coming from it mesmerized the Ork. It grew larger, and came closer to the ground. Dazed, the Ork stood still, fixated upon the rapidly approaching mass of metal.

“Uh oh,” the Ork said, snapping back to reality.


----


Even cushioned by Taldeer’s abilities, the force of the collision was teeth jarring. The shuttle’s hull, already severely weakened, was shredded as the craft skidded across the ground. As the shuttle finally slid to a stop, having carved a long trench pitted with shards of its hull and engines behind it. The twisted door at the rear of the shuttle, one of the few intact parts left to it, fell open, spilling out a coughing Eldar and Vindicare assassin, surrounded by a volume of thick, black smoke. Despite the racket of the crash, or perhaps because of it, there were no signs of life - no Orks stalked the plains, no guardsmen scurried across it; even wildlife were absent. Though the ground was wet and the heat mild, there was not even the faintest sign of plant life.

“Where is this?” Taldeer asked, not expecting any answer.

“Based on incomplete data from the Pavonis computer system, this is the Pavonian Heartland, bordering the Thur’Abis Plateau.”

The Farseer turned pale. “The… the Thur’Abis plateau? Are you sure?”

“I do not believe that I can verify the current position.”

A disruption in the ocean. Something was coming. Out of the corner of her eye, the Eldar saw the glint of the sun on cold, grey metal. The implacable, silent, soulless army, Taldeer’s original mission on Kronus, slowly lurched towards the ruined shuttle. From their gauss weapons, held firmly at waist height, came a sickly green glow.

“I count at least twenty, possibly thirty Necron warriors,” LIIVI’s voice crackled through his helmet, “Moving slowly towards our position. We are exposed.”

“Then we must flee. Again.”

The ground before the two cracked. Taldeer gripped her wraithbone spear as the first Necron pulled itself from the ground. LIIVI’s pistol discharged its round into the skeletal head, and it slumped into the ground.

“Run.”


----


“The Necrons?” Lukas Alexander asked incredulously, still brooding in Victory Bay over the loss of Pavonis, “Why are they moving against us now?”

“We don’t know, sir. All of our attempts to scout the Necrons’ territory have failed. Our closest outposts have already fallen.”

With a grim look on his face, the Governor-Militant commanded, “Relay a fall back order to our outposts in those territories. Redirect our forces to key positions around Kronus,” adding, as an afterthought, “Have reinforcements arrived yet?”

“Gebbett is overseeing their arrival now.”

“Very well. Now, there is an… issue that we must discuss.” Alexander motioned Ardrin to close the door.

“We shall eliminate the Vindicare traitor and the Farseer.”

“Sir, the Necrons and Space Marines are assaulting our fortifications around Kronus. Key facilities are liable to fall at any instant.”

“I know. The men need a clear victory to revitalize them. What better than the execution of a traitor, and that Eldar witch?”

“They disappeared, sir, we cannot locate them in any case,” Ardrin offered, hoping to redirect the Governor-Militant to the defense of his forces on Kronus.

“I need you to - discreetly - contact the Inquisition. We need information about this Vindicare. Where he was trained, who was ultimately responsible for his supervision. Keep this from our Inquisitor ‘friend’. He’s hiding something, and I will find out what.”

Ardrin, disturbed by his commander’s seeming fixation, turned to go.

“Ardrin, we will overcome. Kronus shall once more belong to the Imperium.”

“Yes, sir.”


----


Vindicare assassins are trained to stay silent, still, and concealed for weeks at a time in the pursuit of a target. Even if movement is required, stealth is valued over raw speed. Despite this, their enhanced musculature and training grant them incredible stamina. Eldar, despite being in many ways physically superior to the mon-keigh, lack the raw endurance of such enhanced humans. LIIVI, his legs burning and breath short, the injury in his side burning like a wildfire, half carried Taldeer, her breath coming in ragged gasps, skin covered in a sheen of sweat. The group of Necron warriors pursuing the two had been left behind in thickets of bushes and gullies through which they fled. They could not say how far they had gone, though the thin forest in which they found themselves was a far cry from , and could not know if their enemies had indeed been lost behind them, but Taldeer finally had enough. She stumbled and fell to her knees, head spinning, and dropped her spear at her side. Before she could collapse to the ground, LIIVI caught her in his arms.

“We can,” LIIVI whispered, catching his breath, “Rest here for now.”

	Taldeer faintly mumbled something in approval, too spent to even sit. LIIVI pulled off his helmet, gulping in fresh air. Placing an arm under her legs, he gently lifted her up and carried her to a tree, against which she could sit.
 
	“Are we still pursued?” Taldeer, her voice hoarse and lungs aching, whispered.

	Tentatively, LIIVI took her hand. Leaning close, he quietly told her, “You are safe. If anything attempts to harm you, I shall eliminate it.”
	Every muscle sore, the Eldar pushed herself into a sitting up position. She forced open her eye, heavy with exhaustion, to look into LIIVI’s face. 

“Why,” she asked, a strange note in her voice, “Why did you give up everything for me?”

	She felt, almost on the very edge of psychic perception, confusion from his mind. “You are my primary objective. All of my available resources are to be devoted to the primary objective.” He paused. “Everything, for you.”

	Their faces were only inches apart. The two leaned in together, only to reflexively flinch back as a roll of thunder ripped through the sky.
	“We...” LIIVI looked away, embarrassed, “Must find cover.”

	“Agreed,” muttered an exhausted Taldeer, struggling to stand up again.

Taking up their weapons once again, the Farseer and assassin wearily slipped into the dark of the woods.


----


	“So,” began Inquisitor Madek, the gleeful, gloating tone in his voice clear, “Now that your forces have been utterly crushed at your ever so important battle, you wish to willingly help me find your traitorous Vindicare?”

	Lukas Alexander’s face remained completely placid, though something in his gaze betrayed his disdain. “I will help you eliminate the Vindicare traitor. The Farseer’s death will be my pleasure.”

	Madek made a grand gesture, showcasing Alexander’s luxurious office. ”And why, pray tell, do you not direct your men? Your crippling defeats have surely left you with a more important job to do, have they not?”

	The Inquisitor was trying to work him up, make him take a move, commit a heresy. “I have questions for you, Inquisitor Madek, concerning the hunt for him.”

	“You should know, I have taken some actions of my own to hunt down the traitor, governor. It is you, furthermore,” Madek growled, “Not I, who should be answering the questions. You have failed to explain how one of my Vindicare assassins has fallen to chaos.”

	“You are so certain that he has fallen?”

	“What other explanation can there be? He has forsaken the Imperium, the God-Emperor, for service to… to a ''xenos''!”

	“I have… contacts in the Inquisition, Madek. Friends of friends, one might say.” Lukas might have savored his words if not for the precarious position in which it put him. “There have been other assassins whose training was ultimately supervised by one Inquisitor Madek.”

	The Inquisitor’s face turned pale. “You-”

	“You have been hiding some… embarrassments from me. A Vindicare who could not make a shot on an Eldar warlock from a scant hundred meters. An assassin who let himself,” as Lukas’ voice took on a derisive edge, “Be captured by the Tau. Shall I go on?”

	The gauntleted hand of the Inquisitor slammed down on the governor’s desk. “Do you suppose to accuse an Inquisitor of being responsible for the failure of a few? Do you really think to pin the guilt, for ''your failures'', on ''me''?” His voice rising, anger undisguised, Madek continued, “Going behind the back of an Inquisitor is dangerous, Alexander, more dangerous than you know. You could be ended with a single word, fighting against the Space Marines as you are.”

	“I fight in the name of the Imperium, Inquisitor, and of the Emperor. You may accuse me of heresy, but I know that I am pure in His sight.” Resignedly, Lukas added, “Whatever measure you have taken to eliminate the traitor, keep it away from the citizens of the Imperium.”

	The Inquisitor turned to walk out, but stopped, and slowly returned to the governor’s desk. Leaning close, he whispered, “To deny an Inquisitor, governor, is to deny the Inquisition. To deny the Inquisition is to deny the Emperor. And to deny the Emperor is heresy. Do not act against me again.”

	Lieutenant Ardrin, clearly troubled by the Inquisitor’s abrupt departure, entered the room.

	“More bad news, Ardrin?”

	“Not as such, sir. Merely… news.”

	“Then get on with it,” Alexander grumbled, “I have had enough to deal with in the past few days.”

	“A scout squad we sent out to survey the area around one of our outputs discovered a squad of Necrons. Rather, its remains.”

	“Remains?”

	“We have no idea how it happened, but the Necrons were… completely dismembered. A pile of shredded metal, almost unrecognizable.”

	“What could have...” Lukas began, and trailed off. “One of those,” he whispered, “The Inquisitor’s solution.”

	“Sir?”

	“Madek said that he took actions to hunt down the Vindicare. The way to hunt down an assassin is with another assassin.”

	“You mean that he has deployed an Evers-”

	“I suspect so. There is little left in that thing which is a sane man. Pray to the Emperor that it quickly completes its mission, and does not deviate from it.”

	“If the Inquisitor even can exert any control over it at this time, then we may be in more danger than you realize, governor.”

	“What do you mean?”

	“Your contacts at the Inquisition took note of our… inquiries. They have decided to investigate the actions of Madek. If they find nothing, and inform the Inquisitor, I suspect that the war effort will not deter him from exercising ‘discipline’ on you.”

	“You have performed your job well, lieutenant. Whatever happens, know that the Imperium appreciates your loyalty.”

	“It is my duty, sir, nothing more.”


----


	Taldeer, soaked to the skin through her robe, stumbled into an abandoned house. Surprisingly, furniture in the house was still intact; rough chairs, a wooden desk, even a bed hidden in a corner. LIIVI helped her to a chair, as she eyed the scar visible through his torn suit with worry. He pulled out his Exitus pistol, checking it for functionality.

	“I may be tired, mon-keigh, but I sense no beast of chaos here.”

“I cannot permit any such risk, Taldeer.” The Vindicare, even as tired as the Farseer, sat guard in a chair next to the door, watching for anything that could harm her.

The sky outside a shattered window flashed as lightning smote the ground, and a rolling crash of thunder filled the house.

“There is little that could track us in this storm, LIIVI,” said Taldeer gently. Looking down at her scarred and dirty wraithbone armor, the Farseer frowned. Just how damaged had it become? Undoing the armor’s bindings, she removed the chestplate, lighter than her soaked robes. A tear in the robes drew her attention. It had not been so long since her army had been crushed, and she fled, pursued by an assassin. How much the circumstances were different, yet the same. Thinking of the man devotedly protecting her, she allowed herself a smile. What spark of happiness was left to her drained when she turned her chestplate over. Something was missing - her last spirit stone. Taldeer cried out in disbelief, and LIIVI lept up and rushed over.

“What is wrong?” he asked, scanning the room for any signs of life, “What happened?”

“My, my final spirit stone! It is gone!”

“Spirit stone?”

“The repository of an Eldar’s soul, should he die, that he not be devoured by the Great Enemy.”

“You shall not die.”

“How can you prevent it?” she cried out, “We have failed to escape already! Pavonis is in the hands of the Space Marines! What vehicle we did have has been shot down, and likely annihilated by the Necrons! What hope do we have left?”

LIIVI remained silent for a moment, then reached into an ammo pouch, pulling out an Imperial data storage device. “Pavonis was not the only place where the Imperial Guard had aircraft, and flight data to penetrate the Imperial blockade was… surprisingly available.”

“You cannot mean...”

“Victory Bay.”

“The city is crawling with the mon-keigh soldiers! You would be shot on sight!”

“My life is secondary to the mission. Primary objective: protect you. Secondary objective: Taldeer must escape Kronus.”

The Eldar looked up at LIIVI, her eyes moist, and seized his forearm. “Your life is not secondary to me.”

Slowly, the Eldar and Human drifted together, lips brushing, then pushed together. Arms wrapped around each other, the dangers of Kronus and the storm forgotten, Taldeer and LIIVI sank to the floor.


===Interlude: The Dark Crusade===
	-- Subject: Imperial Guard and Eldar involvement in the Kronus Crusade --

At the dawn of the Dark Crusade, Farseer Taldeer of Craftworld Ulthwe pursued her apparent mission to stop the Necron threat to the tomb world of Kronus. Furious at the xenos’ betrayal at Lorn V, the Imperial Guard, now commanded by Lukas Alexander, followed her to the planet. As the Eldar erected massive webway gates to transport soldiers, linked to Taldeer’s spacecraft, Alexander’s forces landed at Ironworks Bay and established their base of operations. With the ancient technology and weapon he discovered there, however, his mission changed. Now Governor-Militant, he resolved to capture Kronus for the Imperium, and establish the Emperor’s rule once again.

	The highly organized 1st Kronus Liberators, at first, swept across the central continent of the planet. Capturing key territories surrounding the Thur’Abis Plateau, the Imperial Guard created a series of defenses to contain the ancient warriors while more opportune targets were seized. With the Hyperion Peaks manufacturing facilities once again in Imperial hands, Alexander’s war machine drove deep into the heart of the Tau Empire’s presence on Kronus. Imperial Guard forces penetrated the outer defenses of the ancient city Asharis, renamed to “Tash’n” by the Tau, and fortified a forward base. After a long and bloody battle through packs of Kroot and a gauntlet of Tau soldiers on either side of the street, a single Vindicare assassin snuck past tanks and battlesuits, and ended the life of the ‘Ethereal’, the Tau leader on Kronus. The battle of Tash’n ended, and the purge of Asharis began, as the xenos fled the planet. Unbeknownst to much of the Imperial Guard command structure, some Tau medical technology had been ‘acquired’ by Lukas Alexander’s special forces. The Imperial Guard on Kronus collectively turned its eyes to the spaceport at Pavonis.

	Occupying Pavonis without resistance, the Imperial Guard forces stationed there began to fortify the city, its ancient fortifications beginning to crumble. Much of the city was already nothing but rubble. Farseer Taldeer, seeing distantly in a vision the weak position of Pavonis’ spaceport, immediately began an offensive to simultaneously stem the expansion of the Imperial Guard and gain a supreme tactical advantage. Victory seemed almost certain at first, as defenses crumbled under the fire of Eldar weaponry, but an armored column, headed by a Baneblade, arrived in support. Despite heavy losses inflicted on the city’s defenders, the now weakened Eldar forces fled to their stronghold in Tyrea. Emboldened, and bound by duty to fulfill their original mission, Alexander’s forces struck in a brutal counterattack on the Eldar stronghold.

	Annihilating the Eldar catspaws under waves of men pushed unwillingly into battle by the regiment’s commissars, Alexander’s personal retinue led an armored column into the heart of the Eldar forces. A Wraithlord removed Alexander from the battle when a glancing blow from its brightlance ruptured his power packs, rendering him unconscious. Though their commander had been pulled back from the battle, his forces struck back with a vengeance. With their webway gates annihilated under the fire of Imperial Guard artillery, the few surviving Eldar fled the battlefield. Though an enormous force of infantry surrounded Taldeer, she escaped from their midst, though badly wounded. Having regained consciousness in his field headquarters, Lukas Alexander demanded the death of the Farseer. A Vindicare assassin, designated [REDACTED], was dispatched to track down and eliminate Taldeer.

	Mysteriously, the Vindicare disobeyed orders and - in the greatest order of heresy - helped the witch. The Blood Ravens, however, left the Governor-Militant with little time to attend to the situation. An enormous Space Marines force mobilized to capture the spaceport at Pavonis, penetrating the defenses crippled only a matter of days prior by the Eldar. Separating and crushing the platoons guarding the city, the 1st Kronus Liberators were forced to withdraw. In the weeks that followed, the Space Marines captured a number of critical assets, and prepared to invade Victory Bay. The surviving members of the regiment were returned to the Imperium by the Blood Ravens chapter. Details on the battle were lost due to unknown causes.

-- End Inquisitorial report --


===Chapter Fourteen===
	Taldeer stood on a snowy plateau, surrounded by her brothers and sisters of Ulthwe. Lost in thought, she gazed out upon the pristine wilderness. She felt an explosion lift her up, sending her flying backwards. As if out of the blue sky, she was surrounded by Imperial Guard soldiers and tanks. All around Taldeer, her soldiers were crumpling to the ground. The mon-keigh approached her, their illusion disappearing, their features contorting into monsters. The setting sun bathed the sky and ground with red as her army’s blood trickled down the hillside, and the Slaaneshi daemons closed in on her, bloodstained, clawed hands raised to strike. She heard a whisper in her mind, and fell to her knees, trying to vain to shut out the warp-tainted voice. A claw swept down towards her.

She awoke trembling. The Farseer was nestled against LIIVI and, despite being covered a blanket taken from the bed in the corner, was beginning to shiver as a gust of cold morning wind passed through a broken window. She realized, then, that LIIVI had at some point woken up. He was looking at her in a way that only one person in your life could, and Taldeer found herself wishing this moment could last forever.

“Taldeer,” he whispered, pulling her closer, “We must go if you are to escape.”

“Yes, we must,” Taldeer replied, with a resigned tone and quiet sigh.


----


	“Get Gebbett over there with reinforcements and an armored column!”

	“Commissar Gebbett,” the vox operator relayed, “The Hyperion Peaks require reinforcements. The Governor-Militant has ordered that you take an armored column to support its defenders.”

	Lukas Alexander inwardly groaned as Inquisitor Madek walked into the command center.

	“Yes, Inquisitor? I am… busy.”

	“The Inquisition’s priority is to hunt down the traitor assassin, not your petty little war, governor.”

	“Yes, yes. The Inquisition has authority in this matter.”

	Madek slightly smiled to himself. “My… field resources have indicated that your Vindicare,” ignoring Lukas’ curling fist as he continued, “Is currently located in the Pavonian Heartland.”

	“We have seen your “source’s” handiwork in a pile of dismembered Necrons. Tell me, Inquisitor, what have you released onto this world?”

	“I suspect that you already know. Now, I would like guardsmen deployed to the Pavonian Heartland to hunt down the traitor assassin.

	“What could be so important to the Inquisition that the resources of a regiment are needed to find one person?” Lukas Alexander asked, suspicious of Madek’s motives, “And we cannot assist you in that manner in any case. All of our forces are needed to hold our outposts. Your own ‘source’ will have to be-”

	“You misunderstand me. I was not giving you an option.”

	Alexander hesitated for a moment. “Very well, Inquisitor. But do not think that the Emperor cannot see what you are doing to his soldiers.”

	“I do not think the Emperor fails to see even a moment of all we do.”

	Ensuring that the Inquisitor had left, Alexander turned to the vox operator. “Get Ardrin over here. We must… speak.”


----


	Steadily, Human and Eldar advanced across the plains of Kronus towards the Imperial Guard’s stronghold.

	Taldeer halted. “Wait.” She felt the ocean around her begin to heave. “Something is coming.”

	The rumbling of Imperial vehicles and stamping of marching feet filled the air. LIIVI, loading his Exitus rifle, peeked over an outcropping at a chimera, surrounded by guardsmen.

	“Sir!” a guardsman shouted to a lieutenant standing up in a chimera port, “Boot prints, something has been here.”

	“Well, where do they lead?” shouted the officer.

	“Unclear, sir.”

	“Well, get the auspex and scan the area!”

	Taldeer frowned. “Are they hunting for us even among their petty wars?”

	“Eliminating the ranking officer among Imperial Guardsmen should induce a retreat.” A scant fifty meter shot, negligible wind. A simple, quick attack would easily drive off the patrol - for the time. The guardsmen heard loud crack as a sniper shot tore through the spine of the Imperial officer.

	“We’re under attack!”

	“The lieutenant is dead!”

	“Retreat, squad!”

	LIIVI nodded in approval and slung the Exitus rifle over his back.

	“Let us move out, Taldeer.”

	An hour later, as drops of blood dried on the ground a short distance away, a clawed hand pulled its body over piles of boulders. Here there was a scratch on the rock, where a sniper had fired on cowardly guardsmen. An impression in the dirt marked where the sniper had knelt. The Vindicare’s death had been mandated by the highest - the only - authority to which the thing answered. Here there was a faint footstep, in the direction of Victory Bay.

	The Eversor lept after the traitor.


----


	“Sir, we should speak away from the men.” Ardrin’s face was pale. Worried, Alexander pulled him into an empty office.

	“What is it? Has the Inquisition told Madek-”

	“We were contacted. Discreetly. The Inquisition has finished its investigation of Madek.”

	“The results?”

	“More than half of all Vindicare failures in the past decade have been trained under Madek’s supervision,” Ardrin whispered.

	“Is this mere incompetence on the Inquisitor’s part, or has he-”

	“‘Newly’ uncovered evidence, they said, indicates that he has been involved in the creation of weak, faulty Vindicares. More mewling children than weapons.”

	“He is a traitor!” Alexander exclaimed. “This, is heresy! Have they requested that we end his miserable life?”

	“They explicitly told us to take no action and stay out of his way. Said that an Inquisitorial team would arrive to deal with him.” Ardrin paused for a moment, then continued, “They want the Vindicare captured for ‘evidence’.”

	“When did the Inquisition begin to concern itself with evidence? No,” said he, pacing across the room, “They are trying to hide an embarrassment. One that could, at the least, disrupt Imperial operations on Kronus.”

	“No victory to encourage the men, then, sir?”

	“We shall see to it that there is still something to look to. Assign a unit to - stealthily - survey the Inquisitor. If he acts against us, it will become… necessary to end him. Are they, then, calling off Madek’s assassin?”

	“Sir… the Officio Assassinorum denied any approval for the deployment of an assassin to hunt down the Vindicare traitor.”


----


	Broken and overgrown roads dating from the Imperium’s possession of Kronus stretched across the landscape around Victory Bay. Mysteriously, no other Imperial patrols had been sighted. The silence, with a peculiar sensation on the very edge of her perception, left Taldeer on edge.

	“How can your people live as they do?” Taldeer finally asked.

	“What do you mean?”

	“Your lives are short, and your achievements crumble into dust. The mon-keigh live in fear of each day, knowing that it could snuff out their lives. Fiercely fighting over a planet, only to abandon it and return a millennium later.”

	“Are the Eldar really so different from Humans?” LIIVI replied, pausing to look back at her.

	“No, I suppose that maybe, in the end...” Taldeer trailed off as LIIVI’s visored gaze looked over her shoulder, as his hand reached down to pull out the Exitus pistol.

	“Get down!”

	The assassin, more monster than man, knocked Taldeer to the ground, focused now on a single target. A shot rang out, and a hole was ripped in the Eversor’s leg as it struggled with LIIVI. Its deadly claw hovered mere centimeters from LIIVI’s throat, twitching and inching closer. Acting on impulse, with the grace of an Eldar Farseer, Taldeer seized her spear and thrust it into the back of LIIVI’s attacker. It twisted around, wrenching the spear from the Farseer’s hand and forcing the Vindicare’s pistol to the ground in a single move. Its claw raised, and then, without warning, the assassin sprang away into the brush. LIIVI seized his pistol, scanning for the location of the Eversor with his visor’s spectral imaging. It had disappeared.

	“What was that?” Taldeer breathlessly demanded.

	“An Eversor. The Imperial Guard know now where we are. We must move.”


----


	Victory Bay, as the mon-keigh called it, was unimpressive to the Eldar. Ancient, rocky fortifications and the skeletons of buildings were of little interest when compared to the beauty and awe of an Eldar Craftworld. Even still, Taldeer found the fortifications imposing. 

	“Are you indeed sure that their trench system is not viable?”

	“Any outlets of that system would be well guarded by at least a squad of guardsmen. Despite their losses, Taldeer, I find it unlikely that the key areas of the city are short on soldiers.”

	When considering the abilities of the Eldar to move from one place to another, one may think of harlequins, leaping and dancing around a battlefield, or rangers, leaving hardly a mark on the ground. All Eldar, however, are gifted with graceful movement; trained humans, to a lesser extent. The scarred and pitted wall at the corner of Victory Bay offered a viable sequence of holds to climb, but to be spotted would mean a swift death. As if having practiced it a dozen times over, Taldeer climbed the wall, almost gliding from foothold to foothold. Grabbing the wall’s edge with her arm, Taldeer slung herself over the top. No guardsmen in the immediate area. She gestured to LIIVI to ascend the wall to her.

	With an almost comical clumsiness, compared to the Eldar, LIIVI steadily worked his wall over the top. He situated himself on the ramparts so as to scan the area for any signs of life, but felt a pair of arms slide around his waist.

	“If we shall die here, mon-keigh, hold me for one last time.”

	LIIVI, tenderly, wrapped his arms around her. “I shall perish before I let harm come to you.”

	Seconds ticked past that felt like an eternity. Gazing into Taldeer’s eyes, LIIVI murmured to her, “It is time that we go.”


===Chapter Fifteen===
	Madek had been tipped off by allies in the Inquisition that he had been condemned as a heretic. It would be most prudent, he decided, to free the Eversor to do what it would in the city, while still targeting the Vindicare - if he should show up. Meanwhile, having sent his Grey Knights to do pointless errands for the Imperial Guard, he departed with haste for the Inquisitorial landing pad. Then he showed up, with a squad of Kasrkin at his back.

	Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander.

	“Are you going somewhere, Inquisitor?” he said with mock curiosity, “I thought that you wished to oversee the elimination of the traitorous Vindicare.”

	“You gloat now in my ruin, governor? I have warned you what would happen if you attempted to stand in the way of the Inquisition again. Think not that you shall be overlooked.”

	“I have not stood in the way of the Inquisition, Madek. And you are no Inquisitor.”

	“You underestimate my power and influence, Alexander.”

	“And you underestimate how deadly Cadian Storm Troopers are.”

	“Your Kasrkin are weak compared to what I command.”

	Lukas Alexander stepped closer. Madek’s fingers twitched at his side. “Don’t even try to go for your bolt pistol, traitor. Now tell me, ''where is the Eversor''?”

	“Oh, here, there, everywhere, naturally.”

	“Enough of your games! You yourself admitted the Emperor knows all you do. Repent and-”

	“The Emperor can do ''nothing'', to stop me, Alexander. ''Nothing''! He lies on his throne, dy-”

	Madek’s words were choked off as a power fist grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air. Even on a low power field, he could feel his neck blister and burn. The Governor-Militant let go, and the traitor fell to the ground, gasping in pain. Now would be his only chance. One chance to escape. Fast as lightning, he reached for his bolt pistol, drawing and raising it to kill Alexander. A plasma bolt melted Madek’s arm.

	“By the will of the Emperor, by his holy wrath against the heretic,” Alexander told his soldiers, “Execute this traitor.” The final thing that Madek saw was a line of Kasrkin aiming hellguns at him.

	Looking on the body of Madek with disgust, Alexander told the squad sergeant, “Contact Ardrin. Tell him of what happened and ensure that he contacts the Inquisition.”

	In the back of the squad, a Kasrkin screamed with pain. The soldiers turned to find his chest shredded, and Madek’s Eversor standing above him, blood dripping off its claws.

	“Kill it!” shouted the governor.

	Shrugging off the hotshot lasgun bursts hitting it, the assassin leaped into the shadows.

	“Before that message is sent to the Inquisition,” Alexander ordered the sergeant, “I want every man in the city on the lookout for that, that ''thing''. It could wreak havoc on our defenses.”

	“Understood, sir.”


----


	“Mon-keigh, how will we be able to access the controls on an Imperial Guard Valkyrie? Surely they have security procedures...”

	“This data device contains autopilot data and access codes.”

	“And you were able to access those from a single computer terminal?”

	“Security protocols must have been disrupted. You think that it is a trap?”

	“No, but it still feels very… convenient. For it to be a trap… there is only one man who could, and would, create a plan of such intricacy, and he is on Ulthwe.”

	“I do not know of whom you speak, but-” 

	The sound of marching and voices reached their ears. Why, Taldeer thought, had she not foreseen them coming? The pair dove behind a pile of abandoned, rusted machinery from times long past.

	“They say it’s some kind of assassin.”

	Behind his mask, LIIVI frowned. They could not possibly know that they were in the city, could they?

	“Big skull for its mask, a giant claw on its hand, they said.”

	“I heard a story about one of those once. Some kind of assassin. It slaughtered two squads of some heretics before rippin’ off the head of their leader.”

	“They hunt for the Eversor,” LIIVI whispered to Taldeer, almost too quiet to be heard.

	“Why do they hunt their own assassin?”

	“I can think of no reason they would, unless… unless it has gone rogue.”

	“That thing? Loose in the city? That does not bode well for an escape.”

	“If the need comes, I shall deal with the assassin.”

	Eldar and Human, unwatched and unknown, sank into the shadows as night began to fall.


----


	“We have lost contact with three squads. Two of them have been confirmed as eliminated.”

	“Do you have any idea where the damnable thing is now?” burst out an irate Lukas Alexander.

	“Not exactly, sir, but...” Ardrin trailed off, trying to think of the best way to phrase his next words.

	“But what?”

	“All its latest attacks have been in the vicinity of our landing zones. I believe that it may be waiting for an Inquisitor to arrive to give it new orders, as Madek is… executed.”

	“I want two Kasrkin squads and a transport vehicle, at minimum, by the spaceport.”

	“From the data we can access, Eversor assassins do not go down easily, sir. Should we deploy specialized weaponry?”

	“Ardrin, I trust you to oversee this operation as you see fit.”

	“Thank you, sir.”

	“Dismissed.”

	The last person - at least to the extent that he was a person - Alexander wished to see at that moment, Mildilv, burst into the office.

	“Where is the Inquisitor?” he demanded.

	“Madek is dead,” Alexander said, appearing almost unconcerned with the content of his words.

	“Dead? In the city? He sent me off to do a menial task, and I come back to find out that your ''pathetic'' guardsmen have let an Inquisitor die in the middle of your stronghold?”

	“I said Madek is dead, not that an Inquisitor was dead. Madek was a traitor and a heretic. Even the Inquisition let us know when our digging turned them on to his actions.”

	“You have killed an Inquisitor? This is treason!”

	Alexander slammed his armored fist on the desktop, and stood up to look directly into the assassin’s eyes. “I executed a traitor. He blasphemed against the Emperor. He tried to kill me. He unleashed ''an Eversor assassin'' into the city!”

	Mildilv frowned. “An Eversor? Let loose on Imperial forces?”

	“It has already killed at least three patrols, and I am sure that the number has already grown.”

	For the first time, a slight hint of doubt appeared in Mildilv’s eyes.

	“I… must contact the Inquisition.”

	“You do so. When you have finished verifying the truth of my words, perhaps you will help eliminate a rogue assassin. Perhaps two.”

	Ardrin, visibly flustered, entered Alexander’s office once again, just as the assassin was leaving.

	“Sir,” he said breathlessly, “Gebbett’s forces were ambushed by Orks while en route to the Hyperion Peaks. We’ve lost the manufacturing facilities there to the Blood Ravens.”

	The governor let out a sigh. “Perhaps there are wars the Emperor does not wish that we win.”


----


	Near the edge of the city’s landing zones was a scarred and beaten Valkyrie. Clearly, it had been in combat and had been damaged. Parts of the plating were brand new, and crates of parts lay aside it. It would not have been unusual to see techpriests working to repair it on a normal day, but with the Eversor on the loose, any non combat personnel were hiding in bunkers and habitation shelters.

	Inserting the data device from Pavonis into the landing pad terminal, LIIVI uploaded command codes and a flight path to the Valkyrie. Hissing as a thin layer of smoke and water vapor escaped, its doors slid open.

“No munitions, and compromised armor. We cannot risk getting into combat with this. You’ll have to enter coordinates to reach your ship.”

Taldeer smiled sadly at LIIVI. “Do not worry, you’ll be safe on Ulthwe.”

“You matter more than I, Taldeer.”

LIIVI helped her into the aircraft, and inserted the Pavonis data device into the computer system, for course corrections. Then it appeared in the distance, closing fast.

“They may never stop coming.” he said to her, kissing her for a last time, drawing his Exitus pistol and dropping the rifle behind him.

“What are you doing?” she shouted as he jumped out of the Valkyrie. The doors sealed shut and the engines activated as the aircraft’s autopilot kicked in. Below the Valkyrie, LIIVI, holding his pistol, walked towards the Eversor assassin. With unerring accuracy, he raised the Exitus pistol and fired.


----


“Sir, an unauthorized Valkyrie just launched from the landing zone!”

“Get a message to the fleet, and direct available forces to that position.”

“Yes, sir,” the vox operator replied, as Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander hurried to reach the location before it was too late to stop whatever the assassin.

“Sir,” Ardrin told Alexander as he stepped out from the chimera, “The Eversor is dead.”

“Ah, excellent. So you brought it down?”

“No, sir… we didn’t.”

The governor glanced aside at Ardrin.

“What do you mean by - ''oh''.”

Over the body of the Eversor, surrounded by Kasrkin ready to shoot him for a single move, stood a figure. The visor in his mask had been cracked by some previous battle. His suit had been slashed open on one side; a clear scar was visible through it. The Vindicare’s Exitus pistol lay on the ground beside him.

“You are a traitor.” Bitterness laced Alexander’s words. “You have abandoned the Imperium to consort with xenos. You have murdered soldiers of the Emperor. How do you plead?”

“I have completed my mission.”

“I do not see the dead body of an Eldar witch, traitor. You failed your mission, and when we find her, she will die.”

The Vindicare remained silent, perfectly still.

“The only reason that you are not dead right now is because the Inquisition wants you alive. In their tender mercies, you will reveal all you know.”

Alexander turned to Ardrin. “Clap him in chains and put him in a cell until the Inquisitors arrive.”

High above Kronus, a Valkyrie left the atmosphere.


----


A tear slipped down Taldeer’s cheek as the Valkyrie ascended ever higher. “Mon-keigh fool,” she sniffed. Its engines struggling to function outside the atmosphere, she fumbled with the Valkyrie’s communication systems.

“Primitive… humans...”

A light turned on as she adjusted the frequency. Shuddering as she took a deep breath, she spoke into the system.

“This is Farseer Taldeer. Are you receiving?”

A crackle of static answered her.

“Can… can anyone hear me?”

The communications system remained silent.

“Does this even work?” she muttered to herself. Looking out at the stars in the far distant regions of space, she only remembered the distance now between LIIVI and herself. If he even still lived.

A communication crackled in over the system. “Xenos scum, your treachery will not go unforgiven.”

Her fingers flying over the sensor system, Taldeer tried to determine what the ship was. It appeared to be an escort, capable of…

She had poorly functioning engines, compromised armor, no weapons. She was helpless, hopeless. Taldeer stifled a sob.

A barrage from a weapons battery sailed past her, as the ship grew ever closer. An energy beam lanced past the cockpit, and the Farseer realized, with a shock, that it had not come from the Imperial ship. Her massive wraithship loomed over her, and in an instant enveloped her in its holofield. 

A swarm of Eldar awaited her arrival, and even cheered that she had survived.

Taldeer had never felt more alone in her life.


===Epilogue===
Taldeer, sitting in a room alone, realized that she sensed… someone with her. Looking around the room, there was no one; no warlock seeking solitude, no soldier looking to her for consolation. She realized, with a start, that what she felt was something alive within her. Not a parasite, she mused, but she realized that she felt something stirring within her abdomen.

A child, created of a forbidden love.

She felt LIIVI in a vision. An Inquisitor, a cage. A vast ship carrying him in its belly.

“Mon-keigh… you are alive,” the Farseer whispered to herself.
</div>
</div>