2,302A/N: And here we have the final chapter of Voluspa, and the opening salvo of Revelation. I will make every effort to start posting Revelation either by the 27th, or the first Saturday in May as life permits. I will post the notice on my profile, and likely make a an announcement on Reddit.
Thank you all for reading.
Chapter Forty-Two: Under the Heaven-Touching Tree
"Lord Gareth, may I have a moment?"
Gareth Antigoreth, Lord Commander of the Segmentum Pacificus Missionarius Galaxia fleet, looked up from his cogitator interface with several tired blinks and a kind smile. "Letha! Yes, I'm always happy to speak with my most promising analyst. Come in! Tea?"
"Thank you, Lord, no. I hope I shan't take too much of your time. I had a question regarding our latest demographic reports."
As she settled, his kind smile tempered itself slightly. "Ah, yes. I suppose you would, wouldn't you? It is an example of cultural parallel evolution, but if you serve long enough with the missionaries, eventually you encounter a culture that venerates names that we abhor. For instance, when I was in my youth we came across a world that worshiped the Emperor under the name Lupercal!"
"Truly? What did the Ecclesiarchy do?"
"Some of the more zealous of the members wanted the world purged. But we missionaries were able to show it was simply a cultural memory. Over the course of two generations we were able to correct the worship, and now that world tithes and contributes as a valuable member of the Imperium."
"So…Telos is one of those names?"
"Just so."
Letha looked down at her clasped hands. "Lord…from everything we've been able to determine, she established the Imperial Cult before we even arrived. How could she have known such a thing if not…?"
Lord Gereth interrupted her with a raised hand. "Letha, don't say it. Don't even think it. The purging of our records of that name is as necessary here as the purging of the Arch Enemy's name was from Tanith Minoris IV. Some names must be forgotten."
"I see. Thank you, Lord, for telling me."
Gereth was on his second century. Even with rejuvenate treatments, he appeared old enough to be her father, with thin hair and bushy brows. One of those brows rose. "Dear Letha, I know that look. And so I shall give you fair warnings. Do not go digging. It is enough to know the name is forbidden. If you try to find out why…I would hate to lose you."
A chill ran down her spine. "I see. Thank you for your wise words, Lord."
"Of course. You have great potential, Letha. Your tactical mind has served this fleet well, and I foresee a time when you sit behind this desk, if I can keep the Guard from stealing you back. Just remember that we are the first hand of the Imperium the worlds of this subsector will see. This can be a hand of friendship, or if needs be, a fist of righteousness."
"Yes, lord."
She left his office shaken and more than a little upset, though she kept her expression blank. The Emperor's Hand was one of thirty frigates that accompanied the Mechanicus ark ship that even now had a whole army of adepts and techpriests drilling through an active volcano in the eastern continent desperately looking for the mythical STC that summoned the fleet.
She let the tech priest worry about their precious technology. What worried her was that even though she had no doubt a living saint was on the world below, all reference to her name was stripped from every single report, data loom and cogitator in the ship.
And now she wondered if the inquiries she'd made to discover this fact might very well doom her.
Letha made her way back through the five-kilometer ship, doing her best to stay out of the way of the naval personnel or armsmen drilling. She spoke to her fellow missionaries where social etiquette required, laughed at bad jokes and told a few herself, until finally she reached her quarters.
Lead missionary analysts often worked from their quarters, so she was allotted more space than she would otherwise have been granted. Her living area consisted of three-square meters that held her sanitation station, her bed and personal storage. She was allotted an additional two square meters for her workspace.
She settled down into her chair as she arrived and stared bitterly at the cogitator interface screen. Her last few inquiries and report reviews were gone, deleted from her screen.
Wait. "Who…"
"Lieutenant Faltornus, is it?"
With a startled scream, Letha tried jumping to her feet, only to jam her knee into her desk and fall awkwardly back into her chair, and from there to the floor. She looked up from that prone position and bit back a gasp.
The woman who faced her smiled without any sign of humor in her eyes. Her face was unblemished by age or environment, with neither scars nor beauty marks. Her eyes were a pale shade of green. She wore golden and black armor of breath-taking quality, obviously powered but sized for her frame. But it was the rosarius and the Inquisitorial Rosette on the chest of that gold and black armor that made Letha suddenly very nervous.
"Inquisitor. How may I serve?"
"Getting up would be a start."
"I apologize. You startled me."
"Yes."
Letha pulled herself back into her chair and sat. The Inquisitor did the same, using Letha's bed. The weight of the woman's armor caused the mattress springs to groan. "Missionary Gareth spoke very highly of your analysis of the Western continental political and religious circumstances. He said your information was astonishingly accurate."
"It is my honor to serve," Letha said by rote.
"Yes. You're assigned as an analyst of the Missionarius, but you are actually a Lieutenant of the Astra Militarum. Why did you request service on this ship?"
"My apologies, Inquisitor. I'm unsure of the nature of your question."
"You don't need to understand the nature of it, lieutenant. You just need to answer. Why did you request to join missionaries?"
"I…believed I could best serve the Emperor in this role, lord."
"I see." The Inquisitor let the silence go on far longer than was comfortable as she stared intently at Letha. "And you are disturbed over the purging of the name 'Telos' from your reports. You spoke of her extensively. She is widely worshiped on the world below."
"Yes..I mean, she is widely worshiped. It is my privilege to do whatever Lord Gereth requires in my reports."
The Inquisitor removed a dataslate from somewhere in her armor and began to read aloud. "'Lieutenant Faltornus is recommended for promotion to senior lead cultural analyst. She successfully mastered three of the major trade languages of the planet tentatively named Hagia Arborous, for their worship of their local trees. Moreover, she led the first successful contact missions with quick mastery of local currencies, economies and political structures. She has been a significant asset to this mission, and I foresee a great future for her."
On the one hand, it gave Letha warm, grateful feeling in her chest that Lord Gereth thought so highly of her. On the other hand, it made her terrified that it was an inquisitor letting her know of that regard.
The other woman regarded her intently. "Lieutenant?"
"Yes, lord?"
"How did you learn four local languages from orbit when the planet has no vox capabilities?"
"I learned them on exploratory expeditions, Lord."
"One of your fellow analysts reported that you already knew one of the languages when you first arrived."
Letha had to force herself to keep breathing with the Inquisitor very calmly pulled an antique, bone-handled laspistol from her hip and casually placed it across the thigh plates of her lap.
"How did you know these things, Lieutenant? This world has no electronics of any kind, save for the shattered remnants of the STC the Mechanicus is digging up in the eastern continent, and what appears to be a crashed Astartes transport buried under the ice in the far north. So how could you have known their language or culture before the landing? The currency? The western continent alone has two distinct currency systems, with six more on the western side of the main continent. Normally it takes the expedition missions six months to learn these things, but from your colleagues you knew it within days. How?"
"Lord, I just…"
"Letha, Lord Gereth is a good son of the Imperium. He thinks very highly of you. Do not make me break his heart by lying to me."
Letha could not move; her voice came out in a squeak. She knew enough to know that the Inquisitor could not only make her disappear, but ensure that she suffered unspeakable pain on merely a whim.
But then, just like the many times before, she felt a soothing wave of calm and warmth. Instead of a detailed dream, though, what she felt was a sensation of approval, and consent. Tell her everything.
"I…have dreamed it, Inquisitor."
Rather than be surprised, the Inquisitor just leaned forward. The elbow pads tinked against the armored plates of her thighs as she leaned forward. "Do you often dream things that are true, Lieutenant?"
Letha quickly shook her head. She'd met someone who'd been taken on a Black Ship, never to return. "No, lord! Never! I am no psyker; no witch. My birthworld was strenuous in screening."
"And yet, you dream things that are true?"
"The dreams are not of my doing, Inquisitor." She barely managed to whisper the confession.
The inquisitor, though, merely nodded. "Telos speaks to you. Directly. And what did you offer in return for these dreams?"
Letha's hands shook. "Nothing, Inquisitor! I swear before the Golden Throne. She's never asked anything of me, nor made demands. In my dreams, she walks me through the cities and teaches me. She says she is a servant of the Emperor and is clearing the way for us. Lord, please, how can she be anything other than a saint? We've never encountered a world that formally joined the Imperium so quickly, and with so little loss of life, than this world! Surely she serves the Emperor?"
"And yet she bears one of the fifty names that mean death to all that hear it," the Inquisitor said softly. "Lord Gereth is wise enough to know to never utter the name again. But every other member of your expedition who encountered the name have been purged. It was only by me censoring your reports that more did not die."
Letha's eyes stung as a tear ran down her cheeks. "Stellen? Michale?"
For the very first time, the Inquisitor's hard expression softened. "They did not suffer, Letha. If I had not done as I did, the whole expedition would have perished. Perhaps this will help you understand the urgency of my actions."
Letha was a lieutenant of the Astra Militarum. But she'd never seen active combat. She'd lost friends before; missionary work was dangerous. But like this? Gunned down like food animals because they heard a name?
A name she had been learning from for weeks, now? Oh Emperor protect me, she's going to kill me.
"Lieutenant, if I meant to kill you, you'd be dead."
Did the inquisitor read her mind?
"Do not think my willingness to do what's necessary is the same as pleasure. I despise the fact that my own peers put me in the position of potentially purging an entire expeditionary fleet because they happened to stumble on a forbidden name. Killing those four acquaintances of yours saved tens of thousands, and potentially the world below."
"Which means you have to kill me, too."
"I should. My conclave would certainly expect me to. But my directives are ancient, and supersede even that of my Order or the conclave that I follow. And that is why, Lieutenant, you will take me to her."
"Her?"
"Do not make me say the name again, Letha. You can take me to her, can you not?"
Let her come. A small touch of warmth. Of reassurance. Letha nodded. "Yes, Lord."
"Then come. We have work to do."
She motioned, and Letha obeyed by standing. The two stepped into the hall, where Letha froze at the site of two Inquisitorial stormtroopers wearing the rosette of their office. The Inquisitor stepped past her. "This way, Lieutenant."
The Lunar-class cruiser was a city in and of itself, like a miniature hive in space. The fragile humans and tech priests who kept it running occupied only those parts of the ship not dedicated to torpedo launchers or storage, powerful lances, or energy production. In those small spaces between lived the crew, servitors, and over ten thousand Imperial Guard.
Letha wanted very much to ask where they were going, but her experience with those in power was that they loved their mind games. She had to assume the inquisitor was no different.
She felt a touch of surprise when they made their way to the lifts and began dropping down through the decks to the flight deck. In the middle of the deck, obviously being prepped, was a ship that did not belong. "The Hand does not carry any assault boats," Letha said.
She then saw the rosette inscription on the side of the 55-meter long block of flying death and fire. The Inquisitor said nothing as she continued to lead the way across the deck. Crewmen and servitors alike made way until they reached the highly modified assault boat. Within what should have been the armored troop compartment, she instead found a luxuriously appointed suite of offices and rooms.
~~Voluspa~~
~~Voluspa~~
The assault boat carried a dozen Inquisitorial stormtroopers. When they landed on the planet's surface just a few hundred kilometers south of the northern pole, Letha felt a surge of fear when four squads of soldiers bearing the Inquisitorial seal on their carapace armor emerged from a separate section of the ship. Sixteen of them came, each carrying massive, vicious-looking hellguns of Martian make.
The Inquisitor led them down the ramp of the clearing in a primordial coniferous forest just miles south of the world's arctic circle.
Just a hundred meters away, a lone brick cabin sat at the base of a stony hill. A single, massive tree rose above it–a weirwood, the locals named it. Red leaves rustled in the wind, while the smooth bark was as white as snow. A face had been carved in it ages ago, making it look goulish.
Letha felt a surge of confusion looking at the cabin, and evidently the Inquisitor sensed it. "What?"
"I…that cabin should be in the city of Wolfall. It was in the primary Temple. I don't understand what it's doing out here."
"And yet you led us here."
"I…don't understand."
A soldier cried out. "Contact! Lord…Emperor Protect us!"
Letha suddenly felt as if a fist had gripped her heart and held it in place.
A giant in gleaming golden armor, ancient, extravagant and beyond anything she'd ever imagined, stepped around the corner of the brick house. The giant stood half again as tall as the tallest of the stormtroopers in their escort, and carried an archeotech spear taller than a man. A short, ornate blade hung from an extravagantly crafted belt at the waist of the power armor.
Letha had never before seen one in person, but she had no doubt that an Adeptus Custodes stood before them. The Emperor's own companions–beings almost as mythical as his long-lost sons–were rarely if ever seen outside the Imperial Palace on Terra.
For a change, the Inquisitor appeared to be just as rattled as Letha. "I am Inquisitor Adele Rothlis of the Ordo Hereticus. Please state your business, Lord."
Even Inquisitors spoke respectfully to the Custodes.
"I do the Emperor's will," came the answer. "By His Will, I stand guard over the one within. By His will, only you and the strategist shall enter."
The Inquisitor stood absolutely still, her face blank in deep thought, until at last she nodded. "Very well, Lord. Lieutenant, with me. Captain, form a perimeter but remain outside."
The captain nodded while his men walked gingerly around the Custodes, their faces hidden behind the shields of their masks.
"The Emperor protects," the Inquisitor declared. She began marking forward. As she did so, she removed her exquisitely made laspistol. Letha followed, while the soldiers remained outside. The Custodes glowing ocular ports felt hot against her skin.
The Inquisitor stepped without hesitation through the cabin door, and Letha followed a step behind. The moment she crossed the threshold of the door, she felt a strange sense of welcome and calm.
"You're just in time."
The woman within moved about a stone oven from which she pulled out several meat pies that Letha became familiar with in her work with Gareth. She wore an apron of tree bark fiber over linen and cotton. She placed the pies on a tray and turned to face them, and for the first time Letha saw the starlight eyes that were depicted in every painting or picture of Telos.
Beside Letha, the Inquisitor went very still. Her nostrils flared in surprise, but strangely no alarm.
"Have a seat," Telos said, like a mother might to her visiting adult children. She looked so very young. "Do you prefer ale, tea or wine? I made one for Caligus outside, but evidently the Emperor's companions don't need to eat very often."
"You were expecting him?" The inquisitor voiced the question with admirable calm.
"I was told to expect him. All part of the agreement, you see. This conversation is for us alone, Adele. You and Letha. Please, join me. I promise no harm will come to you or your people here."
She placed the pies on the table–there were three of them, each roughly the size of a large man's fist. Beside each she placed a wooden spoon, and then a wooden tankard. She glanced at them and then poured wine in all three. "Sit, Adele. You too, Letha. Please."
The strange goddess sat facing them, and waited.
The Inquisitor, named Adele, slowly holstered her laspistol. "You expected us?"
"Your Emperor told me you were coming," Telos said. "Just like he sent his Companion to ensure no misunderstandings."
At her motion, Letha and the inquisitor sat. As soon as they did, Telos used her spoon to break the crust of her meat pie, revealing the thick gravy, vegetables and diced meat within. The smell that escaped with the steam made her stomach grumble. With a side-ways glance at the suspicious inquisitor, Letha took a bite.
She could no more have stopped her moan of delight than she could have stopped breathing.
"My mother was an extraordinary cook," Telos said to her with a kind smile. Her spoken voice was the same as the soothing whisper in her mind. "She taught me everything I know." With that, she took her own bite.
Slowly, and suspiciously, the inquisitor named Adele took a bite. She did not moan, but it was a close thing.
"I first spoke to your Emperor over a century ago," Telos said as she ate. "He appeared as a figure with shifting faces bathed in golden light. I could feel his presence from across the galaxy. More importantly, I felt the agony he suffered daily to provide that light to your people. A divine agony, beyond any mortal's ability to comprehend, much less suffer. Not even you, who serve him, could understand what he gives for you. He told me the only way to save the people of this world was to ensure they were his people as well. He neglected to tell me that my name was forbidden. If I'd known that, I would have called myself something else."
"Like Taylor Hebert?"
The Inquisitor's question startled Telos, but she recovered with a wide smile. "Yes! You recognize it. Is it also forbidden?"
Adele stared, her lips parted in wonder. "You don't even know, do you? You look just like her. I thought I was going to find her, but you're not Taylor Hebert. Not with those eyes."
Letha did not understand what the Inquisitor meant, but somehow Telos did. "Oh. I see. I'd been told, but I suppose now I have independent confirmation. I suppose…the Taylor Hebert you know about and I are parts of the same being. Is she…well?"
"We haven't seen her in centuries," Adele said. "But she always returns. You know why I've come."
Telos took a bite and chewed before answering. "There are almost fifty thousand people alive today who are descended from children I personally delivered," she said. "There are seven hundred direct descendants of my very first friend on this world. These are my people. And I would do anything to save them, even serve the Emperor. Even erase my own existence. I know why you've come, Adele. And I am thankful He sent you, just as he sent Caligus, to ensure no misunderstandings. I am no heretic, I am the Emperor's personally chosen servant."
She finished her meat pie. Letha discovered mournfully that hers was also gone, though she couldn't remember eating it all. Even the Inquisitor's was gone. Their host took the bowls and placed them in a wooden pail of water.
"Who I am now is less important than who I was supposed to be," she said over her shoulder. "I was supposed to be hope for the Imperium. A beacon for all mankind. Instead, by the machinations of the Great Enemy, I was bound and limited to this world. The Emperor's will cannot be done while Telos of the Trees lives. And so you will kill me, Adele. But perhaps not in the way you feared."
She returned to the table with a single pear in her hand. The pear pulled at Letha's eyes like a flame might pull a moth, for it held a deep, golden glow to it. Next to the pear, Telos placed a pair of forceps.
"I need you, Inquisitor, to remove my bifrost eyes."
The Inquisitor raised one brow. "Why?"
"I am a goddess, Adele. Not a witch, or…what's the word you use? A pysker. I do not need to harness the Warp for power, but instead I control and command the spirits of the world around me. I am an immortal, supernatural being. But I was meant to be more. I cannot serve humanity bound as I am to this world. And so I must shed my divinity. Remove my magical power and become wholly mortal. I must leave Telos behind so that the name can be purged. That's why you're here, Adele. Because you have the will to do what must be done, no matter how..."
With shocking speed and violence, the inquisitor cut Telos off, took the forceps and shoved it into one of the goddess's eyes. She pulled with obvious effort and removed a glowing blue gem. Telos herself fell out of her chair with a pained cry. Letha jumped at the sudden violent act.
Telos did not strike back, though. Instead, the goddess gasped as she righted herself. Bright, almost glittering red blood flowed down from her empty left eye-socket. "I was very drunk when I had those put in," she said. Her lips quivered with pain when she spoke. "I think it actually hurts more taking them out."
The lone glowing crystal eye focused on the Inquisitor. "You're not done, Adele. The other eye as well, please."
Far more gently the second time, having gauged the truth of Telos' words, the Inquisitor reached into Telos' unflinching eye until the forceps gripped the crystal. She put her whole weight behind her tug and pulled with a grunt.
Again, Telos cried out in pain as the second crystal fell on the table. Abruptly, both lost their inner glow and looked almost like quartz. In the silence, Telos felt around the table until she found the golden pear. She ate it so quickly juice dripped off her chin. As Letha and Draebim watched, the being's eyes began to fill with jelly that formed and shaped itself until a pair of green eyes framed with drying blood regarded them.
"My eyes," she said, with a new hint of uncertainty. "Are they still green?"
Letha nodded; Telos sighed as she placed the core of the pear on the table and regarded the two dull crystals. "It seems so odd. After all I've done and sacrificed; the monsters I've faced and fought to save humanity. Would you believe I'm scared of being mortal? It's not as if I haven't already died for my people once."
"When, Telos?" Adele asked. "When did you die for your people?"
"By your measure of time? Thirty-four, maybe thirty-five thousand years ago. On Earth, before humanity ever walked the stars. I saved the human race and died a good death doing so, only to wake up on this world tens of thousands of years later." She held the crystals to her stomach and closed her eyes as she slowly chanted.
The air became dense with cloying energy. Letha watched in awe as blue plasma-like flame began billowing up from the goddess's skin. The fire seemed especially concentrated around her navel. Her arms and legs began shaking violently, but she continued to chant. With her hands, the crystals glowed brighter and brighter, until in a sudden blinding light, Telos collapsed to the floor. There, she began convulsing violently. The crystals lost their light.
Letha, acting on impulse, jumped to the woman's side and held her down until the worst of the convulsions passed. In the aftermath, Telos clung to Letha with shaking arms.
A new golden warmth shown through the limbs into Letha. This golden heat felt completely different than what it felt like before, as if a different power source now sent the feeling. The Inquisitor also left the table and knelt down before the fallen goddess.
Golden light swirled about her head, forming the hint of a circle, almost like a halo.
"Telos is dead," the seemingly teen-aged girl said. "Tell your masters, Adele. Telos is dead. My name is…Sabbatina…no, I am Sabbat. In return for this world's safety, I swear now to serve the Emperor."
Letha looked at the Inquisitor, who was studying the golden light in fascination.
"Yes," the Inquisitor said, finally. "Yes, I see now. There was no person with that forbidden name here. Just a girl named Sabbat. You'll accompany me down from these mountains, and discuss with the fleet on what steps shall come."
The young-seeming, newly blessed Living Saint nodded. "The Emperor Protects," Saint Sabbat declared.
A/N: The story of Taylor Hebert will conclude in Revelation, the fourth and final book of the Infinite and Divine.