My vision wasn't swimming by the time I saw the first Shadows walking through the dark tunnels with headlights and putting a few rounds of sfire into every little horror that thought they could hide by pretending to be dead. I was still weak in my knees and breathing came hard but somehow I mao walk in a fident stride with all the grace of an Eldar. I waved off a Shadow with some stripes on his shoulder pad signifying that he was either an officer or a squad leader before he could e up to me and ask something annoying as my makeshift armor melted off me and crawled bader my skin as it dissolved into hair-thin tendrils. To my satisfa they mao hold the line and all the Horrors were dead as far as my senses could reach, I followed my mental link to the tiny tendril I left on Seleh a tunnel-like focus, I didn't see all the other people and the Shadows staring at me with much more awe ahan before, a part of my miered it but it didn't quite reach my scious thoughts. I stumbled into the hall holding the ruins and saw Orion point towards me, I also saw Selene's face torn towards me with a frown, like she was about to berate me for bei it was wiped off of her face as I stumbled on a brick poking out of the floor and fated into the hard ground. Hello, ground, o meet you. I closed my eyes as I sighed, unwilling to betting up at the moment, my whole body felt weak and frail. I felt like a single fliy forehead would make my form shatter into thousands of shards like a pne of gss. I'm so fug dumb, you don't fight crazy eldritch Psykers that crawled out of the with Psyker powers, the only sistent was in WH lore to beat an overpowered Psyker is to go full ret- berserker on them with pure physical strength. I should have tried the Lictor form and ambushed him...why didn't I?....It was safer fre.... A thought struck me and I couldn't help but frown, was I scared of it? "Holy shit," I heard Selene say only a step away from me before I heard her kneel dowo me and then I felt myself get flipped over, "are you alright?" "No," I said with a strained smile, "but I'll be good in a few minutes." "What got you into this state?" her eyes were filled with worry and an undercurrent hteous fury. "A bird," I coughed, no blood came out as I didn't actually have any physical injuries, "it spoke in riddles, it gave me a headache." "Oh e on," she almost hit the side of my head but held herself back, "be serious for a moment, you look like you are dying." "But I'm not," I said, my right hand reag up and toug her cheek as I stared into her beautiful steel-coloured eyes, "and I'm already feelier." She grabbed my hand and held it in her own, though the bulky gau on her hands made it far less romantic than I'd have liked. "Should we bring something? A sleeping bag?" I heard the aged voice of Orion from somewhere close, "Don't bother, I have all I need." "It's alright," Selene waved the old man off, "I got this, you hahe aftermath." Once he left she sneaked her bulky arms under my bad legs and raised me up in what a 21st tury nerd would refer to as a 'princess carry'. "How galnt," I murmured as I leant my head on her annoyingly armoured shoulder, it wasn't quite a real 'princess carry' if I couldn't feel the heat of her body and the softness of her body. In the meantime my metaphysical body was healing quickly, I was c soul-energy filled with the io heal aore through every pore of my body and it was doing woo my psychic els. My mindscape was also a bit fucked from all the energy rolling through it without much trol on my part, I had to get the floating pyramid bato the ter and up all the aimlessly floating chaotic soul energy. Soul energy wasn't as annoying to up as energy but once I gave it some sort of i it was like a hyperactive kitten on LSD and I had to tell it that it could calm down. She took me over ter te up at the edge of the ruins and pushed the fp open with her shoulder and sequently with my head. "Ow," I moaned as it spped me in the face even if I barely felt it. "Oh, sorry," said Selene sheepishly as she pced me down on a bed, "you rest here as long as you want." "Stay," I said as she turo leave, "I 't heal without you holding my hand." She looked at me in a way that told me she knew I ewing bullshit but with a sigh, she sat dowo the bed and clicked her gau off before pulling my hand into it, thearted caressing the bay hand with her thumb. "Aren't you like 700?" she wondered out loud. "Mhmm, and?" "Then why are you like this?" "The only way worth living is to enjoy life," I nodded sagely as I smiled at how her soft fingers carefully held my hand like it was some delicate art piebsp;"So what was this bird that beat you up like?" she ged the topic after a moment of silenbsp;"Annoying," I huffed but my shoulders slumped a moment ter, "it's been a while sinething didn't die from a single bolt of Eldritch Bst." "So it gave you an actual fight?" "Yeaaaaah, you could say that," I stared at the ceiling, "it could have given me much more of a beating if it wao, I think." I watched her from the er of my eye, her lips parted as if she was going to speak up but she relutly closed them before any sound could escape them. I was far too tired at the moment te her to talk, the silence was fortable and with my arm encased in her gentle grasp, I let myself rex. Silence followed with none of us speaking up but she tio caress my hand and that much was enough to make me happy, how long has it been since I held the hand of another person? Far too long, many things left me but it seems I still starve for physical tabsp;I closed my eyes as it seemed Selene sank deeply into her thoughts, I focused on guiding the energy cirg in my body and gave my whole attention to healing myself. "This is more plicated than I thought," I wondered aloud as Zedev's judging crimson gaze bore into the side of my face, I was sure if he had ser sight my skull would already be peed by it. It's been around half a day since I came stumbling bato the camp and around two hours since I released Selene from her hand-holding duty, I've finished healing my metaphysical body hours before but nobody could fault me for a few hours of rexing after such a strenuous fight. Do they even know what a Greater Demon is, would they lose their minds if they knew one of those was less than a kilometer away from this pbsp;He didn't even say anything as I ran my fiips over the etched symbols aric shapes oe. To be ho I sort of expected it to just need some iion of soul/ energy and it'd get that portal up and running in no time but as it turned out the space elves put a fuck ton of safety features into their Webway Gates. Trying to circute my energy through the circur Gate was my current goal which was obstructed by having to lockpick a psychic lock every damned millimeter of the way. The locks seemed entirely random and each took a siderable amount of both time and effort on my part. After ten or so mihe first one in my way which was already half--open when I bumped into it snapped open which caused the servoskulls to fly arouically as Zedev focused oh sutensity that I thought he'd pick me up and start swinging me bad forth by my shoulders until I expined what I'd just done. One of his meical arms started reag for me before he caught himself, his hunched spiraightened a little as the Magos sidered me again. "Query: What did you do?" "I lockpicked one of the psychic locks on it." Was a staring test between a being like me and a cyb like the Magos fated to tiil eternity? No, one of us would run out of fuel first and I sure as hell wasn't going to be that ohe Magos seemed to have realized the futility of his as and while his gaze didn't leave me it lost most of the heat behind it. "Request: Eborate." "Sure," I said with a smirk as I turo run my palm over the alien traption, "I tried to circute energy through this gate at first but I bumped into a half-opened lock around...here," my fiopped right above the pce, "I spent the st ten or so mirying to tease it open and I finally ma just now." "Fasating." "How far our sensors reach?" I asked, ging the subjebsp;"Uain: Depends on how accurate it has to be...with the loss of the Wanderer most of our le sensors are gone as well." "I want to know how long we have until bugs start falling from the sky." "The gravitational shockwave of them disengaging their FTL systems at the edge of the star system should be the first thing we could seh what we have." "From there it should take anything from a week to a month," I thought aloud. "Affirmative: that matches recorded data of the Tyranids." "I guess I'm not sleeping for a few weeks then," I shrugged with fake dread on my fabsp;"Suggestion: If you lose funality midway through your efforts would be wasted, I reend taking time to ... rest." "Nice of you to worry," I said lightly, knowing he only said it because the tin loathed the idea of dying, "but I go for a few months without sleep, I handle a few weeks without a problem." "Aowledged: I will keep monit your funality." "Much appreciated," I rolled my eyes, "SELENE!" "WHAT?" the woman shouted back from the other end of the ruins. I jogged up to her, carefully stepping around any part of the ruin that might be important. I spent some time after rec just the engravings and faded pictographs on the walls, I didn't know the Eldar nguage aher did I uand the weird hieroglyphs on the walls but there were some paintings too which did mao jog my memory. The few intact paintings fshed in my mind, I knew one of the depicted figures in the middle of sughtering another enormous being to be Khaihe Eldar god of Murder and every shit thing associated with it like cruelty, bloodshed, war and other cute stuff like that. This made me assume the rest of the forms were the other Eldar gods but I couldn't be sure, I didn't remember how they were supposed to look. "How far those Thunderhawks get from the p?" I asked as I slid up o her. "Orion?" the woman g her new sed in and. "The fuel might be the biggest problem as of now but it should take the ships third-way out of the system but it'd take at least two weeks." I let the sileretch a bit as I thought through my options, there was a ce that I could crack that Webway Gate before the bugs arrived but taking the effort to hold up the fleet for a bit or distract them would calm my nerves a bit. I was strong sure but as I was right now I didn't think I could protect even myself from a full-blown Tyranid incursion. The bugs weren't dumb animals, ohey uood that only acid and corrosive stuff worked ohey were going to send an o's worth of it on me bined with whatever bioon they mao cook up. I could eat bacteria and stuff but there were viruses and some poisons that did more damage to my reserves thaing them refilled. Some nerve agents could still work ooo, it'd only take a sed for aire splinter fleet to rip me apart. Orbital bombardment was something I wao avoid and based on my simutions I had the greatest ce at success if I went out and ambushed the fleet before they reached the p. If I killed the Norn Queen at the ter of the fleet all of them would desd into a frenzy before a new one was rapidly grown. The Psychic shockwave of the monster's death would be a Gamma css event too, by the Imperial cssification system. I wasly sure what that entailed but it didn't sound good, it should be somewhat simir to what happened when those morons opehe ortal in orbit just at a much rger scale. "What are you pnning?" asked Seleh her narrowed eyes staring at my thoughtful visage, undoubtedly appreciating my finely crafted beauty. "I'd like to say that I'm fident in kig that Gate over there int order," I pointed over my shoulder with a thumb as my other hand came to rest on my hip, "but I think we should take the effort to slow them down." Her eyes widened as she thought she uood what I meant, "What do you think?" Selene g Orion. "I don't know he that fleet is," the old man ran his fihrough his short beard, "but I don't think two Thunderhawks are going to distract them for long." "Oh," I acted like he'd just said something surprisingly moronic, "but you see...I'm going to be the distra." I couldn't help but grin at their dumbfounded looks, they were surely thinking 'What the hell is she talking about?'. If I didn't stay here who'd lockpick the gate? I fshed a psychic light, blinding everyone around me for a brief sed, and by the time they regaiheir eyesight, there were three of me. The two newers standing behind me like bodyguards, covered from the neck down in chitinous armour as I was unwilling to give the drones any of my clothes. "If you get one of these on any of the ships that ship falls," I decred, making my drones grin smugly behihrough my newly established pseudo-broodmind. Not too surprisingly all of the people who had their faces uncovered had to pick their jaws up from the floor. They didn't know yet that this was a turning point, they knew of my ability now. It was either them being my allies before we reected with the imperium or them going missing in the Webway. That might sound cruel and now with all the efforts I've goo I felt guilt threatening to make me doubt my decision but it ot be helped, I found that I doly like wearing a mask all the time and making myself appear infinitely less powerful than I actually was. Zedev's astonishment when I replicated his prized samples, Selene's awe and fusion at my st a were both like a drug to me. I realized I loved it, the attention, breaking their cepts of on sense. I especially looked forward to pulling the rug out from uhem and seeing how beings of this gaxy reacted to hope, not the superficial aeric hope that faith gave but a realistic hope they could feel and experienbsp;How would an Eldar react when I tore of The Prince of Pleasure's grabby cws from their souls I wonder? Craftworld Ulthwé The Farseer awoke from deep meditation with a start, his well-anized mind being tumultuous like an untamable sea from one moment to the . Prophecies, predis and pns he has cultivated for thousands of years and used to guide his craftworld and by extension, the remains of his rato an optimal future vanished and thousands, no millions of new options sprang into being. Nothing was the same and the man who's lived for more thahousand years, watched the Great Crusade of humanity py out and watched helplessly as Chaos sunk its cws into humanity despite his efforts to prevent it. Fate was once again i on defying him. Despite his mounting headache, the Farseer let his sciousake in all the new possible futures, he cataloged and anized. He wasn't ied at the moment in what the future held but in what was the thing that kicked fate ainy off a cliff. Ihan a mihe man found the epiter, a se of space held nominally by the Imperium sandwiched betweeau and the detestable Nes. A Star illumihe great darkhat has covered the immaterium for 60 million years for but a minute. A Star-like no like no other he'd ever seen, it was brilliant white, untainted by the corruption and malice of this gaxy. Then it was gone, he grimaced as the star blinked out, it didn't die, of that he was sure but it shimmered out of existence, hiding behind the veil of both reality and irreality in a pce where her Fate nor Destiny could get ahold of it. The millions of new prophecies vanished, he tried to hold onto them but it was meaningless, like trying to hold onto air. Nothing remained, not a single sign of what had transpired and for a moment the old Asuryani doubted his own memory. The elder stood up, throughout his visions he caught a few glimpses, among them he saw glimpses at a brighter future even while he was focused on searg for the epiter of the phenomenon. The dire destiny of his rad the gaxy at rge that he saw as iable before was cast into doubt, there may be a ce still to defy She Who Thirsts. "Maybe..." the elder murmured as he got ready to send delegations to iigate this occurrehis time I will step carefully." The st time he tried to py with fate in such a way he almost lost his life. This time, it would be different. P3t1

  I've posted up to Chapter 54 on Patreon, you read 2 advanced chapters for 1 or all of them for 5 here: Join Now!

  I hope you ehe chapter~

  If you like this story you might want to chey other one:

  Whispers of Winter's Flight is a fantasy story about a runaway elven princess learning magic while hiding from her father and would-be husband.

  Check it out here if you are ied!