Editing Story:Another Continuation of LCB (section)

===Chapter Twenty One===

"''That which is unknown or unseen always commands the greatest fear.''"<br/>
- The Dictatus Culexus

Of the assassins, none are more feared than the culexus. The fierce claws of the eversor, the well placed shot of the vindicare, the unexpected blade of the Callidus - none of these can compare to the mind ravaging terror of the null aura. To stand near a null is to suffocate and stifle one’s soul. To feel the sensation of being a soulless body, still living. Normal men may feel only queasiness, coupled with a mortifying sense of existential dread. What a psyker suffers will depend on their strength, discipline, and training. An exceptionally talented and well trained psyker may experience extreme pain, seizures, hallucinations, intrusive thoughts, or the cotard delusion. It is nothing less than the violent rape of their soul, the brutal unstitching of the very essence of their being. Sufficient exposure will kill them. It is merely a matter of when.

This is before the addition of the animus speculum. A skull shaped helmet that can not only amplify their aura, but muffle it to near silence. Used in conjunction with synskin, they can become as invisible and intangible as the mind crushing fear that they inspire. But it is not their stealth capabilities that are most frightening. It is the beam which they can fire from the lens of their speculum, a fierce and concentrated lance of negative warp energy, which can tear at matter and soul alike. To confront one is to face more than death. It is to face annihilation.

The rest of the eldar convulsed on the floor, shrieking, eyes bulging as spittle flecked from their mouths. They were helpless now. Taldeer struggled to breathe through the grip of the culexus, throat burning, desperately struggling for every precious gasp. Its hand was wrapped around her throat like a vice. She tugged feebly at the fingers, but they were no more yielding than steel. Was the assassin really that strong? Or was it her own rapidly fading strength?

The synthskin flickered as the massive lens began to thrum, charging. The creature was smaller than she expected, standing a head shorter than her. It had to reach up to grab her neck. But what did size matter for a culexus?

The assassin’s head was cocked slightly to the side, as if it were curious, captivated by its target. Taldeer swore she saw the glint of an eye behind the flickering mask. Probably just a trick of the light.

The grip grew tighter. Eyes watered. Throat filling with bile. Her heart was pounding in her ears. The whirlpool was sucking harder and harder, Fates laughing as they ran circles around her, riding madness into the black depths of the sea. The hungry maw was about to close. Every way pointed down.

She tried to scream.

There was a finger snap. The synskin’s invisibility flickered one last time, then died. The culexus relaxed its grip and looked down at the massive hole in the left side of its lower abdomen.

Again. The back of the animus speculum shattered. It turned to face Liivi, now running down the hallway, but the culexus could yield no resistance. It stumbled backward and into the ceramite wall two meters behind it. The ruined animus hit the wall first, shattering, and splitting down the middle. The helmet rolled off of its shoulders, and face of the assassin was revealed as it slumped to the floor.

----

The culexus coughed blood and rasped as it laid on the ground. Its null aura was already beginning to fade. It sighed.

The woman looked so young. She couldn’t have been over 25. There was a natural beauty to her pale face, hiding bashfully behind the scars and stitches, the unkempt hair, already white, and the rings underneath her grey eyes. There was no expression of fear, no recounting of her regrets. Her hollow stare laid out the story of her whole life, plain as day - her gaze had looked dead long before she was dying.

Liivi pulled out his stubber and began to walk over, stepping over the still spasming eldar. Soon enough he stood by her side. He looked at her, then at the weapon.

Fingers brushed against his shin. An attempt at a grasp. It wasn’t aggressive. It was soft. Weak.

Tender.

“Vindicare…” She looked up at Liivi pleadingly, breathy voice rasping barely audible whispers. She struggled to inflate her chest. “Will the emperor forgive me? Will I be alone forever?”

The farseer was hardly sound of mind. Perhaps that was why so much of her revulsion turned to pity. Surely she couldn’t sympathize with this monster, this being that was detested even by the mon-keigh. The culexus - hated, feared, and reviled universally by her people, a blight suffered only for the good of a craftworld. Yet why was it that, as this human’s mere presence brought her to her knees and pushed her to the brink of death, she felt as though she were looking upon the most pitiful creature that ever lived? There were all sorts of illusory sensations atop of the pain - one leg was resting on sand, while her hand lay in a fire, and the whole of the room seemed to be twisting, rolling, and spinning, warping before her very eyes. Perhaps she was feeling a false emotion?

Whatever she felt, Liivi certainly seemed to feel something resembling sympathy. He knelt next to the young woman and put his hand on her shoulder.

“You have served the Emperor loyally. You will be with Him, and all the others. I promise, miss…?”

“Sascha. My parents named me Sascha.”

The eldar couldn’t take much more. And even the woman, obviously accustomed to pain, was clearly uncomfortable. There could be no more delay. “Sascha, I will now administer the Emperor’s benediction.”

“Please.” The woman coughed and feebly grasped at his hand. He gave it to her. She folded her arms across her chest and gave Taldeer one last look. There was something she was wrestling with, something she wanted to say. Sascha settled on a single word. “Sorry.” She closed her eyes. At peace. Liivi leaned her forward slightly, and positioned the barrel exit slightly above where the skull met the neck. 

There were two bangs in quick succession. Silence. Perfect silence. All the ambient noise of the control room vanished from the Farseer's mind. Even so, it was still hard to hear the woman's breath leave her lungs for the last time, never to return. No doubt, what Taldeer saw was just as much a hallucination as the enormous dragon and the sinister looking harlequin riding it, both of which managed to sit in the room without filling it. She saw a little bird emerged from the mouth of the dead woman. A Goldencrest, perfectly white. It stared deeply, curiously, at Taldeer as it flew through the ceiling, riding the woman's final breath.

With that last exhale, the null aura flickered and died. The sensations vanished. It was over. Liivi rested Sascha against the wall, finally removing his hand from hers.

She was smiling.

The eldar slowly began to get up, now able to collect themselves. First Taldeer, then the captain. Wiping the spittle from his mouth, he glared at the corpse. His face said contempt, but his eyes said fear.

For similar reasons, the Farseer found it difficult to lift her gaze from the woman. She was shaken up, not just by the assassin, but by herself. All of them were struggling to stitch their psyches together. But time was of the essence, and Liivi’s voice snapped the eldar out of their trance.

“We should go to the pad.”

----

The Raider was spacious. Very spacious, with so few people. There was room enough for a small medical station, and there, Mellorena was getting the medical attention she sorely needed.

It had been an impressive arrival. The Vampire Raider swooped out of the clouds, accompanied by four Nightwing Interceptors, two on each flank. The aircraft circled overhead as they loaded into the raider, Taesan making in the nick of time with the little medic on his back. At present, he sat next to Ysukin, and the two were engaged in animated discussion. Gilfavor clutched the spirit stones of the departed as he read battle reports. Barroth, Tanlon, and Elnys were conversing in hushed tones, eyes darting to the young artisan, who watched Mellorena’s operation with a despondent stare. Perhaps his comments did not escape their ears after all.

“This must seem strange to you, hm?” Taldeer sat down next to him. “The wraithbone, I mean. It certainly is marvelous.”

“The organic shapes contrast with the hard edges of Imperial architecture, yes.”

“Well, get used to it. You’ll be on Ulthwe for awhile, I expect. Hopefully for a long time.”

“Hopefully.”

Liivi stared up at the lights, oddly golden, exhaled, and closed his eyes.

----

Sitting in his command chair, Madek massaged his temple. All feeds in front of him were dead. The General Governor Militant wasn’t answering. Felix knew better than to address his lord in times like this.

“Perhaps this is my penance. The loss of all my assassins to a witch and a defective vindicare.”

Felix remained silent.

“I have a confession, Felix.” The inquisitor wore his ill fitting smile haplessly. “I must let this off my chest.”

“You have my ear, sir.”

“I have been collecting assassins for a long while. They’ve proven immensely valuable in my investigations and purges. The results I yielded always led to the approval of another grant. Yet the one I wanted above all others, one that went unapproved for years, was my request for a culexus.” He sighed. “There are many Inquisitors and so few culexus.”

The enginseer nodded.

“I grew tired of waiting. So much heresy, so many xenos, so little time. But I did not act. I sat obediently.

Yet there came a day when I was investigating reports of a daemonhost on a backwater world in the area. I went to the village that the report indicated. Not a sign of chaos or warp taint. It could hardly be cleaner.

I discovered why when I reached the edge of the village. The unwanted child. The pariah. I could feel it well before I saw her.

Frail, she lived in trash, and not even the dogs would go near her. The girl could barely speak gothic. Her face and body were covered with scars.

She was a null, a true blacksoul, and she was exceptionally powerful. Her survival was nothing short of a miracle from the emperor.

I got as close to her as I could - 20 meters, though I could feel it to 60 - and I beckoned her to come with me. I told her that there was a world beyond her little planet. That she was destined for greatness. She could serve the Emperor and find solace in his love. And the most damnable lie was, perhaps, that she would no longer be alone.

She craned her head from the fetal position and accepted.”

Felix nodded in sombre reflection.

“After much deliberation, I determined to keep her for myself. I enlisted a death cult to help train her. I got her culexus gear from a rogue trader. Things went faster with the animus speculum to dampen her null aura. No longer were her trainers slowly driven mad. With my fierce will, I grew more accustomed to her influence. But even I had my limits. She was so potent. She hardly needed training to be as dangerous as the average culexus.”

“It sounds as though you cared much for her, sir. Was she like a daughter to you?”

“Don’t be sentimental. Some beings can never be loved. She was one of them.”

“I see. Such a pity. They probably could have done some amazing things with her.” There was a shift in Felix’s voice.

Madek turned to face the enginseer and watched in horror as the hunched form warped and twisted itself into a callidus. In one hand, she held the symbol of the inquisition, and in the other hand, she held a pistol.

----