40 Thousand Reasons

While we waited for those sacrificial psykers to arrive, I focused my efforts on rooting the Shariax replacement throne at the base of the Golden Throne, not that I actually had to break my back doing anything.

Reality inside the Golden Throne was rather... flexible.

Glass roots of the Shariax device meshed flawlessly with the tubulature connecting the Throne with the Astronomican beacon, while I stood on the new glass throne watching the scene with amazement.

The whole device was a Warp amplifier, which did nothing for me. My meager psyker powers were working in reverse, not that the Emperor seemed to care about my Blankness at all.

Then again, he was the one to engineer the Silent Sisters, after all. Their natural genetic resistance to the Warp had been amplified from Blank to Pariah status, and the recessive genes turned dominant via biokinesis magic.

The Companions observed me with doubtful or hopeful eyes, but none of them beside their Captain even tried to speak with me. Busy guarding the place, no doubt.

Adam certainly liked his historical references, as there were 300 such Companions, just like the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, while the name itself was copied from the loyal bodyguards of Alexander the Great, who were also called the Companions.

Hours later, a sorry group of blind psykers was escorted inside the Golden Throne room, all bearing stigmatas and purity seals, while looking around with white-cloths over their missing eyes. I guess one didn't actually need eyes to see in the Warp.

"Come forward and hold your hands in front." I demanded while raising from the replacement throne and walking beside the psyker group.

However, one psyker woman seemed familiar, which was quite a coincidence in such a large galaxy. I searched my memories until I matched faces. "Griselda. It seems your fate was generous indeed."

The woman nodded and turned towards the Emperor. "I was a silly girl when we first met, Lord Lancefire. Trying to worm my way into your household for an easy life. But now, I stand in the presence of the Emperor, and my soul will join him soon in the Afterlife. There is no better fate I could hope for." she declared in a proud voice.

"We're trying to heal him, so you'll need to hold the burden in his place, for as long as you can." I explained in a gentle tone while retrieving the Shadowlight device and touching her hand with the black stone.

Griselda began shinning with warplight as her powers grew by orders of magnitude, and kept growing. A few seconds of exposure to the Shadowlight would have been sufficient to raise her to Alpha-levels, but I wanted to test the limits of the alien device.

So I kept waiting, as the woman crossed into the Alpha-plus psyker level and kept climbing. A minute later, the glow stabilized and reached a plateau. "Thank you, my lord. Like this, I can lift mountains with ease." she whispered in my mind and teleported directly on the glass throne. Holding the light of the galaxy lit might be a tad harder than lifting mountains, but I expected Griselda to last at least a dozen hours now, maybe even an entire day.

"Continue the procedure, Captain Valoris. I believe we have a week of treatment available now." I said with a knowing smile towards the Captain-General of the Custodes.

The giant man smiled back and began disconnecting the ports and tubes from the Emperor's body. Then he stopped, just before lifting the body in his arms.

"The Emperor wants a hot bath and new clothes. And a wheelchair." the Custodes said confused, just I was walking towards the exit portal.

Of course he would. Nobody had bothered to wash him in a dozen millennia.

Damn idiots!

As soon as I walked out the Eternity Gate, thousands of hopeful eyes turned towards me in an unspoken question. "The Emperor is fine. Still needs a long treatment to recover though." I explained like a magic doctor.

A second later, I vanished and reappeared beside Rose and the new Techpriest.

"You're still alive, Pef Lancefire. That's...surprising." Cowl commented in a dour tone, while Rose just smiled sweetly.

I tilted my head to the side and blinked naively at the surprised techpriest. "Why would I not be, Magos Cowl? Now, tell me you have a way to clone Blank Astartes." I asked with a curious voice.

The techpriest hummed in deep thought for a minute. "I don't, not yet. The cloning facilities on Mars were moved elsewhere, outside the Imperium, I think. And the Culexus Temple is not forthcoming with information, not even to Lord Guilliman."

Well, technically those cloning facilities for Pariah agents were supposed to be destroyed, at the behest of the High Lords of Terra, so it made sense for the Culexus Assassins to try to remain hidden, and innocent of breaking the Imperial law. There were no laws outside the Imperium, after all. I did the same thing in my small corner too.

I flicked my hand, and moved our party in Jupiter's orbit, on board the Singularity battleship.

"You have a few hours to examine the Voidclaw weapon, Magos Cowl. Lady Rosalia and I have a few decades to catch up." I offered with a finger pointing towards the armored cradle holding the blackhole gun.

The man was already walking towards the prize, metallic claws clacking in anticipation.

A second later, I arrived in my rooms with Rose in my arms, tongues deep in battle already. We had a lot to discuss, but first there were other concerns to settle.

"Rosalia, huh?" I asked with an amused voice, while watching her 'death and duty' bounce up and down in mesmerizing ways, while my lover was riding me in unrestrained ecstasy.

"Shut up!" she yelled and drew my head closer to suckle those magnificent peaks.

Okay then. I could use my mouth to please the Lady Inquisitor with something other than silly questions.

Serendipity, or unlikely coincidences were rather norm than the exception in this universe, so me nearly guessing her real name wasn't that big, in the grander scheme.

A few hours later, Rose crashed on top of me, sated and fulfilled.

"Guilliman has sent Lady Ramaeus to negotiate with an Eldar called Yvraine, the leader of the Ynnari. Your name has come up quite a lot in the preparations for her departure." the Inquisitor disclosed while breathing a bit raggedly.

I nodded inward, while tracing circles on her back. Some events would always stay the same, history restoring itself despite my interference.

"So you lead the Inquisition now?" I asked a bit amazed.

"...Nobody really leads the Inquisition, my dear. Too many conflicting agendas. But your women all have friends too, and with the Emperor's blessing to support me, I managed to gather a semblance of order. Very tenuous and subject to heavy resistance even so." Rose explained with a heavy sigh.

"There's less than ten Ordo Xenos Inquisitors on Terra. A hundred Ordo Malleus and a thousand Ordo Hereticus, plus some from Minor Orders. So...Adrastia and Greyfax?" I wondered with a thin smile while counting the Inquisitors I could find in the tesseract view.

"Mostly Lady Greyfax, to be fair. She does have a Custodian at her side...which matters greatly for some. And her Blank daughter matters for others...like me." Rose whispered in a low growl, and bit my shoulder for some reason.

"The Emperor called me his son...so my daughters are his granddaughters. It should matter, I think. Now...we'll need to visit Titan and obtain a sacrifice ritual from the Grey Knights. Something that can kill a god." I mused softly while fondling her supple body and enjoying that great feeling.

A long minute of silence followed, while the Inquisitor mulled over my demand. "...And which god do you plan to sacrifice, and why?" she demanded in a cold voice.

"His name is the Crimson God. A C'tan stargod that I obtained during my long travels and trade deals with some powerful beings. As for why...It's the nature of the universe, my dear. Equivalent exchange." I answered in a level tone.

Rose sighed and stood up, measuring me with violet glowing eyes. "A life for a life, and a soul for a soul." she proclaimed in an uneasy voice.

"There's a dormant C'tan deep under the surface of Mars, my beloved Rose. The Void Dragon, devourer of suns and souls. When the Emperor fought him dozens of millennia ago, the cataclysm ruined most of Africa and turned the northern parts to glass and sand. We have myths of that battle, Saint George defeating the Dragon, but C'tan are not so easily killed. The Dragon fled to Mars to heal himself, and his dreams fuel the techpriests of Mars with blueprints of advanced technology. But, if this healed and intact C'tan would awaken once more, at the heart of the Imperium, while the Emperor is incapacitated..." I offered with a powerless shrug.

As expected, the threat of an alien menace convinced the Ordo Xenos Inquisitor more than other rational explanations.

"This better work, Pef Lancefire!" she warned me with a suspicious glare.

I smiled and crossed my fingers. "What could go wrong?"