The reason is clear: the Adeptus Meicus trols the Imperium’s teological lifeblood. They and tless Fe Worlds that produce the ons, ships, and supplies that fuel the Emperor’s wars across a million worlds. Without the Meicus, the Imperium would colpse into ruin. If they ever withheld their industry, the sequences would be apocalyptic. “I uand what yetting at,” Valyra said calmly. “It’s precisely because of the Meicus’ power that I’ve kept quiet all these years, allowing those robed fanatics to py their games in my territory.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kayvaan snapped, pag restlessly, his agitation pin. “Are you seriously pnning to provoke the Meicus? Do you realize how bad things already are? Why make it worse? And why am I just hearing about this now?”

  Valyra raised a hand, signaling him to calm down. “What exactly do you want to know, brother?”

  “Everything,” Kayvaan said, exasperated. “Why have you ged so much? How have you lived for housand years? What’s the deal with our STd why are you antagonizing the Meicus? Holy, you’re even more of a mae than they are! You’re practically their mascot!”

  Valyra chuckled dryly. “What a fttering parison. Fine, I’ll expin. There’s much to cover, but I’ll keep it simple for your sake.”

  “Good. Start from the beginning.”

  “Let’s start with my body,” Valyra began. “I don’t know if you remember, but I’ve been… different since we were children.”

  “Of course. You were always the oh her nose in books. You were smart—too smart.”

  “But I was still human,” she said sharply. “Being a ‘genius’ doesn’t mean anything in the Imperium. Geniuses grow old. They die. And in this age, they are crushed uhe weight of ignorance. Especially those in sce.” Her tourned bitter. “The Meicus is stagnant. They’ve strangled human progress with their bliion. You ’t imagihe torment of living as a schor uheir rule. They don’t study teology—they worship it. Worse, they persecute aside their ranks who dares to innovate.”

  She paused, her meical hand curling into a fist. “Private research is forbidden. Civilians who attempt it are silenced—executed or assassinated. And STCs—those sacred relics of teological knowledge—are hoarded like treasures. The Meicus will stop at nothing to seize them.”

  “I know that,” Kayvaan said ftly. “It’s what they’ve always done.”

  “And you’re not furious about it?” Valyra shot back, her voice rising with frustration. “This isn’t just a monopoly—it’s a betrayal of humanity. They’ve twisted knowledge intion and made curiosity into a crime. The so-called Mae God isn’t real, Kayvaan—it’s a lie they g to because they’re afraid to question.”

  Kayvaan shifted unfortably. “Are you sure about that? Some maes do seem to… defy logic.”

  Valyra sighed. “I’ll admit there are mysteries we don’t fully uand. But evera maes aren’t divihey’re the product of sce lost to time. The Meicus refuses to see that. They revere teology instead of advang it. Do you have any idea how much this has crippled the Imperium?”

  Kayvaan frowned, but Valyra pressed on, her words flowing like a torrent. “Our teology has regressed because of them. housand years ago, in the Emperor’s time, ons and ships that are now seen as sacred artifacts were standard issue. Whole csses of voidcraft o longer be built because the Meicus lost the knowledge to make them. you fathom it? Losing the tools of our own survival!” Valyra paused, her meical body still as her voice softened. “This is why I ged, Kayvaan. I refused to let the Meicus dictate my life or the fate of sce. I became what I am to survive—and to fight back.”

  Kayvaan remained silent. Valyra was right about everything. In Kayvaan's view, the Adeptus Meicus wasn’t an anization of stific researchers at all. Instead, it felt more like a church of archaeologists. Their mission seemed less about advang humanity and more about spreading their dogma across the gaxy. They scoured the stars for a Standard Tempte structs (STCs), g the knowledge stored within them. On STC was uncovered, it was used to mass-produce tools, ons, or teology, which were then distributed to the Imperium. Then, they’d dive bato the endless o of aexts, iigatios, and fragments of intelligence scattered across the void to hunt for the STC.

  But most of these efforts ended in failure. The rare times they did find an STC, it was often too damaged to be of use. Finding one i dition was almost a miracle for the Meicus. In thousands of archaeological ventures, uhing even a single usable tempte was seen as the blessing of the Omnissiah.

  "You’re saying that if this keeps up, we might regress to the Stone Age?" Kayvaan asked after a long pause. He rubbed his thoughtfully before shaking his head. "I don’t know… It’s hard to believe. The Imperium is so powerful. It doesn’t seem possible that the Meicus—whatever fws it might have—could lead to humanity’s extin. They’ve helped us sustain the war effort, haven’t they? Destroy the Imperium? End humanity? It just sounds... ridiculous."

  Valyra’s voice was steady but firm. "What seems ridiculous to you isn’t because it’s impossible—it’s because your emotions won’t let you accept such a grim truth. Deep down, you know the kind anization the Meicus is. You know their fws better than anyone."

  Kayvaan sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I know. So… how does this ect to your situation?"

  Valyra hesitated for a moment, then her voice came through, slightly distorted by the speakers. "I have to protect the family’s secret. This STC wasn’t discovered by act. randfather uhed it during an expedition, buried deep beh a p’s surface. Somehow, it had survived tless millennia, shielded from storms and the ravages of time. Its preservation is nothing short of a miracle. You have no idea how precious it is. If the knowledge tained within it were fully extracted and shared with humanity, it could spark a goldehe enemies of mankind would fall to their knees, and the glory of our past would return."

  Valyra’s words, once filled with fervor, suddenly carried a trace of sadness. "But that dream is out of reach. Right now, all we do is hide this STC. Keep it buried in the farthest ers of the gaxy."

  "The gap between ideals ay," Kayvaan muttered, shaking his head with a bitter smile. "The ideal is to save humanity. The reality? We’re hiding underground like rats, clutg onto secrets."

  "It’s all worth it," Valyra replied fiercely. "Every sacrifice. The loneliness of carrying this burden. The pain of never being able to share it. The responsibility that weighs heavier than any mountain. Turning myself into this—this fusion of flesh and mae, no longer human nor fully mae—every agony I endure is worth it. It’s all to protect this secret. You left home, brother. I never had children. My obsession with this research, my need for secrecy, left me with no oo trust. And even if there were someone I could trust, how could I entrust them with something so moal? No, this burden is mine alohat’s why I ected my body to the mae. My mind is always lio the STC. As long as the mae is maintained, I protect this knowledge… forever."