“Awww~,” I clapped. “Very heartfelt reunion.”

“Who are you?” The woman snapped her gaze at me, already eying the opening in the ceiling and I could hear the little gears turning in her head. She was confused and wanted to be away from here rather strongly.

“The beautiful Sorceress that shoved your sorry ass back into a living body.” I smiled at her. “You can thank me now.”

“Thank you?” She looked down at herself, her body clad in the same silky clothes as mine. “This isn’t my body.”

“Fae,” said Bob, running up to the woman and wrapping her up in a hug. She stiffened up at hers then relaxed into it, giving a tentative pat to the old human’s back. “You are alive.”

“Why are you old?”

“It’s been a hundred and thirty-three years Fae,” he said, tightening his hug. “You were dead.”

I levitated the dim Spirit Stone up to eye level, most of its power came from the Eldar’s soul held inside it but it still had a mythical and powerful quality to it.

“Dead?” I saw her eyes fixate on the blue gem. “How?”

“Poison,” Bob spat. “They knew they couldn’t beat you so they poisoned the well.”

The woman frowned, clearly not quite able to come to terms with her situation just yet. Unfortunately for her, I wanted to get on with it.

“Tell her the important part, Bob.”

“I’ve been trying to bring you back for all these years and despite asking everyone from Farseers to powerful Psykers, only this woman succeeded.”

“Her?” Her eyes narrowed on me. “Who are you?”

“Very rude.” I rolled my eyes. “I go by Echidna.”

“How?”

“Magic.”

“What?”

“Call it a pact then.” I shrugged. “Better with me than a demon, though not by much. I also have a price you’ll have to pay for it.”

“What?” She grabbed onto Bob and I could see that she was ready to bounce any moment. Silly girl, you can’t escape me.

“I am having an experiment here.” I raised my chin proudly. “You see, I have this beautiful partner here.” I pointed at Selene behind me with my thumb who looked on with the same stone faced expression I saw her take on during my meeting with Dante. “And since she is a Psyker, I am trying to make it so she could draw her power from me instead of the Warp.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“I have no idea whether my method will work so I am testing it on you first.”

“No.” She shook her head and glared at me.

“Yes.” I gave her a wicked grin. “I saved your soul from existing in a dubious state of Limbo until a demon finally snatched it from the cold dead hands of your little human lover there, this is the least you could do dear.”

“What if I won’t?” She asked.

“I am not giving you much of a choice on this matter..” I shrugged. “Oh, well, maybe this will help convince you.”

‘I have a task for you Val.’ I sent through our telepathic link.

‘What is it?’ He sent back not a second later.

‘I’m going to summon you.’ Was all the warning he got before I opened up a portal under his feet and connected it to one next to me.

“Damn-” He cursed under his breath but landed on his feet, then he dusted off his clothes and turned to me with an inquisitively raised eyebrow.

“Convince her to become my test subject.” I pointed at the Eldar woman and Val followed my finger.

“Who is this?” He asked with a frown as he beheld the Eldar hugging an old human in ragged, stinky clothes. “What experiment?”

“I think Bob — the human there — called her Fae.” I tapped my chin. “I just yanked her soul out of this and shoved it into a body. I want to test my idea of how to change the source of a Psyker’s power from the Warp to me.”

“I see.” He nodded, and the human illusion flaked away from him. I could also feel a glimmer of excitement bubble up inside of him. It was good to have at least someone as enthusiastic about becoming my test subject as he was. “I am Valenith, disciple of Farseer Eldrad Ulthran of Ulthwé. Introduce yourself.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Faelarian Dawnwhisper.” The woman eyed Val with as much wariness as surprise. “I am from the Maiden World of Cepharil.”

Cepharil, Cepharil … where do I know that name from? Sounds familiar.

[~~ding!~~ Data: Serenade, known to the Necrons as Cephris and to the Eldar as Cepharil, is a world located on the Eastern Fringe.

History: The world was originally part of the Necrontyr race and became a Tomb World for the Ammunos Dynasty. According to legend it became the resting place of their last Phaeron, Nephreth.]

Oh. Ooooh. That was where Trazyn found the shard of the Deceiver.

“My condolences then.” I smiled at the woman.

“What?” She gave me a look.

“Are you sure you only had her in that gem for a single century?” I turned to Bob. “Eldar Exodites haven’t stepped foot on Cepharil for 8000 years.”

“I left the planet long ago.” She frowned, her gaze snapping to me. “What did you mean by that?”

“Doesn’t matter. Cepharil is a chunk of lifeless rock and it has been such for a good while now if I remember correctly.”

“Faelarian.” Valenith interrupted the barrage of questions visibly sitting on the tip of her tongue. “What this woman offers you is of indescribable significance, if she succeeds you might free your soul. You might never again need to carry a Soul Stone.”

“IF.” She hissed. “Why don’t you do it?”

“I could?” He turned his gaze on me, a touch wary but I could tell he was willing to throw himself on the metaphorical operating table.

“I’d rather test it first on someone I value less.” I shrugged.

“I see.” Val nodded. “This is a chance for you to free yourself, did you never wonder what it could have been like before the fall? This is an opportunity to glimpse that, to regain a fragment of the power we once held.”

“How likely is it to work?” She asked after a few seconds of deliberation.

“Fuck me if I know.” I shrugged. “I am trying two things, one could royally fuck up what I have going and the other might royally fuck you up.”

“You are not making a convincing argument.” Selene whispered into my ear. “Couldn’t you just tell her it should work?”

“Not like she has a choice.” I shrugged. “No use lying when her choice just saves me the annoyance of having to sedate her.”

“You could get a loyal follower if she did this willingly. If you forced her into this, wouldn’t that just be a liability to you?”

“It would.” I eyed the Eldar. “I could just tear her connection apart after I know it worked though.”

“That would kill her.”

“It would.” I nodded and while Fae showed no sign of having heard our conversation, I doubted she hadn’t. Those ears weren’t just for show.

“You are not making my task any easier.” Val grumbled. Then he went still for a moment before a smile spread on his face; it wasn’t the gentle smile Fae gave to Bob but a predatory smile a wolf gave to a cornered rabbit. “Say Faelarian, I noticed you care for that human deeply.”

“Yes.” Fae answered his not-question warily.

“Unfortunately, he seems to be at the end of his life, human regeneration treatment and whatever else kept him alive this far has a limit and I can tell he is reaching that limit.”

She glanced down at Bob’s weathered face marred with wrinkles, then back up at Val.

“I presume it wouldn’t be too much to ask to return the human to his prime in return for Faelarian undergoing your experiment willingly, would it?” Val turned to me with the same wolfish smile on his face and I couldn’t help but mirror it myself.

“That is certainly doable, barely an effort on my part. Consider it done if you go along with my experiment.”

“I see.” She bit her lips. “What do you think? Are they telling the truth?”

I could make out the hushed whispers she spoke into Bob’s ears.

“I think they are.” He answered as silently as he could. “I saw her turn a girl at the door of death into a woman more fit and healthy than me at my prime.”

“I agree.” She said after a second of thought, letting go of Bob and stepping closer to me. “What should I do?”

“Nothing for now, first try goes to one of these shitheads.” I smirked and dragged a screaming cultist up to me. “You can sit back and relax for now or whatever. This won’t take a minute.”

A single thought blasted away the mortal shell covering the human’s soul which I wrapped up in a psychic cocoon. Then, I forced it through my soul thread which I widened just enough to pull it through.

My grin widened as I watched the Imprint of his soul move inside the Warp, slowly moving in directions incomprehensible to the human mind but my Soul saw it slowly crawl through the ocean below and crawl up to the surface where it stopped.

I frowned. Do I really need to make a connection?

I decided to just drag the soul further onward and see what happens. When the human soul finally popped out of the soul thread, a faint connection formed between the Imprint and it, that I could feel even through my avatar. Shit.

Clawed arms latched onto the connection, trying to drag themselves up through it into my personal little pocket but it was far too faint to support them. The connection didn’t snap, but I knew that it just existing connected me with the Warp and that was something I really didn’t want.

My soul kicked the human soul out of my Puddle and I watched it plop back down into the Warp where it dissipated.

Okay, this idea is a no-go. I either need the connection or I need to do something else.

I formed a brief connection on my next test and I couldn’t help but grin as the Imprint stuck at the edges of my puddle even after I yanked the soul of the second cultist back into realspace.

The imprint still tries to go back to the Warp but it can’t without a connection. Hmm. This could be a problem when I try to go for a refill.

My Soul swam up to the flimsy little soul, and I switched my entire perception to it.

I extended my ethereal hand and pinched the little candlelight between my fingers. I held onto it as carefully as I could, channeling a bit of soul energy into it to keep it alive as I narrowed my eyes at it.

How could I touch this thing? I wasn’t too sure, but I chalked it up to the amateurish reality warping my soul could seemingly do. With the Imprint being right next to it, I didn’t need to use Atiesh to channel that ability through it.

I need to fix this thing in place.

The Spirit stone and its pseudo gravitational well came to mind, and I decided to mimic that. According to my will, the Puddle surged around my soul. In here I wasn’t just A god but THE god.

All the tiny realms forming in my puddle were beholden to my will and everything inside it obeyed me with a fervor you could only find in the most fanatical followers of the Emperor.

Not that anything living was inside of it yet. I was curious how it would affect the rather confrontational Eldar though, seeing my soul in its entirety and not just the puppet I controlled in realspace.

I drew on a large amount of the Soul energy in my puddle and used it to form a single new realm inside of here. I grinned as a forest sprang up around me made of nothing but pure energy and the few streamlined houses and buildings that built themselves up in between them, not breaking the natural beauty of the place.

Around the whole forest realm, I created a barrier which would hopefully keep the souls inside. I let go of the little soul imprint and watched it slowly drift towards the edges of the realm but it stopped.

Perfect.

I snapped my perception back to my avatar and watched on as the two Eldar stared at me with mouths agape and eyes wide. Though Val shook himself out of it after I snapped my fingers in front of his face.

“Still magnificent.” He murmured.

“Fae dear.” I intoned as I hopped up to the golden-haired Eldar. “Time for your operation.”

“Ah?” She blinked owlishly at me. “Yes? What do I do?”

“First things first. Can you project your mind into the Warp and move around in there?”

“I … should be capable of it, but I heard it's very dangerous?” She glanced at Val who nodded along.

“Doing so makes you susceptible to attacks coming from the denizens of the Warp, which few can ward off with any reliability.”

“I see.” I nodded. So the only hold-up is the danger. “There are two ways we can do this. One, I tear your soul out like I did with that cultist, throw it through my soul thread and let your Imprint swim up through another connection before I pull your soul back and stitch it back into your body.”

“The second?” She gulped.

“I make the connection and you travel up on it by yourself.” I evaluated her. “I can somewhat protect you but some dipshit demon might snatch you up before I can help. I am not sure how grumpy the Prince of Pleasure will be with me stealing his meal so there might be some rather rowdy demons coming for you.”

“I would like to try the second one.” She said resolutely.

“Good.” I grinned. “Let’s get started on your ‘ascension’.”