Editing Slaugth (Hektor Heresy) (section)

===Before the Senate===

In the end, the traitors failed. Nothing could stop the Autarch and his retinue, neither the Spire Guard armed with deadly gaseous blades nor stained glass warriors that walked out of the window frames and attacked Aenarion and his followers with iridescent swords. And although only five badly wounded lieutenants stood by his side when the gates of the assembly hall flew open and Aenarion walked inside, they were filled with pride. Their plan that seemed suicidal at first was a resounding success; in spite of all the odds stacked against them, they managed to fool the entire Eldar military and arrived at the heart of the Empire. All that was left was to present the evidence of Slaugth betrayal to the senators. Unfortunately, as they would all too soon find out, their mission was far from completion.

Aenarion was watching the senators closely as he showed them the recordings of the atrocities committed by the Slaugth in the border sectors, and he didn't like what he saw. While most of them were disgusted and shocked, much like he was when he first witnessed them, some were clearly annoyed by the Autarch's presence and the uncomfortable truth he brought to light. It was only then that Aenarion begrudgingly realised that even the Senate, the very heart of the Eldar civilisation, was not exempt from corruption. Still he had confidence in the ability of the senators to discern truth from fabrication and in the inevitable triumph of justice. The Autarch ended his speech by calling upon Asuryan to be his witness, asking the creator god to burn him to cinder if he had said a single word of falsehood. He then walked straight into the sacred Flame of Asuryan, burning brightly in a pit in the middle of the assembly hall, passed through it and emerged on the other side completely unharmed. Aenarion hoped that this miracle would be enough to convince the senators of his honesty.

His hopes were crushed when the imperial tribune took the floor and delivered a burning philippic against him. He called the Autarch a traitor, a warmonger and a blasphemer, accusing him of fabricating evidence against the Slaugth and of using foul sorcery to fake a miracle of Asuryan. The tribune mentioned how many generals, seeing no place for themselves during the era of blessed peace the Eldar empire was graced with, tried to stir up a conflict to increase their power. Aenarion watched in disbelief as more and more senators expressed their support for the tribune, first the traitors, then the rest of them. As shocking as this outcome was for the Autarch, it was completely logical in the hindsight. The ugly truth Aenarion laid bare before the senate was just too much for the senators to swallow. It threatened the foundations of their cosy little worlds, and so they chose the comfort of denial and sided with the tribune, whose seemingly logical theory allowed them to preserve the status quo, no matter if it was built on foul lies. 

Completely dejected by this turn of events, the Autarch and his lieutenants put up no resistance against the Spire Guard who entered the hall to arrest them. It seemed almost certain that the traitors had won, when suddenly one of the walls of the assembly hall exploded in a hail of Wraithbone shards, shattered by a point blank shot from a Prism Cannon. The hole in the wall revealed a shuttle hovering outside the spire, which, judging by the paint scheme, belonged to the orbital defence forces. That's why Aenarion was profoundly confused when one of his own men peered from the shuttle's hatch and ordered him and his followers to quickly board the vessel. Still not sure what had happened, the Autarch nevertheless followed the order and boarded the ship, which immediately took him to his own flagship moored on the orbit.