CHAPTER 4

The strange disruption left the Slaaneshi forces paralysed and zapped of their strength. Had it not been for the bewildering loss of several powerful Bloodthirsters, Khorne could have dealt a more severe blow to the goddess of temptations. As things were several of her domains still fell into the Blood God's grasp when Slaanesh withdrew in panic to consolidate and replenish her abraded powers.

–o–

Jinglypuff slouched in the reception chamber's chair, then set it spinning again with a casual kick. Fifteen minutes had passed since the System's warning. She came to a gradual halt and scowled at the crates she had received from the System. Hadn't she been tricked? These crates were from one of her old warehouses back home. Sure, the materials were nice to have now, but she had expected an actual gift. The longer she looked at the crates, the more reluctant she grew to spend her stuff willy-nilly in a reality she'd likely ditch in a mere decade. Since the System managed to bring the stuff here it could bring it back too, she reasoned.

Jinglypuff drew up from the slouch, closed her eyes and focused on her magical holding space. Within it squirmed remnants of the spiritual root structure which had failed to retract back into the extraplanar region. Although it was roughly only 1% of the entire structure, it would be a shame to let it go to waste. Really, if holding onto the residue and maybe using for the necklace was an issue, wouldn't the System have complained by now? She dangled her legs. Yeah, fifteen minutes of silence basically meant consent, she wagered.

Since she had only managed to grab so little of it the situation was now the opposite of before. Using the substandard local metals for a containment vessel was no longer viable if she wanted to do a proper job. She'd have to compensate by using a sliver of her Blue Mythril to make the necklace. The sword had been pretty sloppy work and it irked her.

After shaping another copy of the bird necklace she set up an appropriate compulsion matrix for the spirit structure. She wanted the protective charm to do a bit of each. First she configured it to do both passive and active healing and cleansing, then she followed up with some aura effects, namely Mind Shield and Bugger Off.

Luck and Bounce are pretty much standard on these type of charms too. Luck uses minimal manipulations to steer trouble away, though at the cost of user autonomy according to some magic scholars and philosophers. Bounce can teleport a person to a safe area in moments of distress, though sometimes it's a bit overly cautious and an annoyance.

As for offensive powers, Jinglypuff added one of her favourite powers – Head Pinch. While not easy to use, it's very discreet compared to spectacle magic, especially so for an invisible fairy. One has but to line up and slowly pinch the target's head between one's fingers. It's the most effective on slow moving dignitary targets at range of say... about that of a castle's ballroom.

Having finished the protective charm she issued some final commands to the Fairid down on the planet and wrapped up a few loose ends. It was time to move out and explore elsewhere. According to the books there were a few interesting things around here she could poke and prod. Now when she thought about it, in her social circles back home a well researched tome about another reality was worth quite a bit of cred. Fifty years ago old Nailhead had put on quite the show at the Grand Sage meeting with his report "The Realm of the Torment Nexus". The Dragon King had flaunted his newest work "Looking Elsewhere for Gold". Jinglypuff herself only had her short and speculative flatlander piece. It had been embarrassing.

–o–

The drop pod shook and whined. Yava was strapped into one of the ten shock seats encircling its core. She wasn't wearing any pants – and neither was Tommak in the next seat over. He was always such a prankster, but wasn't he dead? No, he was obviously right there.

The drop pod opened. She hadn't even noticed when it landed. Everyone inside just ran off across the smouldering barren surface of the world. Huh? Who else had made the drop with her? She wanted to run and find them but her malfunctioning seat trapped her.

By the time she got loose the surrounding terrain had changed. She was in a lush garden. Women partly shaped like crabs climbed out of the earth. One of them picked a delicious fruit from a strange tree and offered it up. The others moved in an alluring dance, performing for no one in particular.

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As Yava bit into the juicy fruit with gusto, a carriage drawn by pale yellow seahorses arrived in a clearing ahead. The carriage looked like a fruit but soon revealed itself to be something similar to a drop pod by the way it fell into in slices. Holy light came beaming out, then a shining baby with far too long black hair rose up into the air. It was the Emperor himself! The baby Emperor laughed and smiled at her as it continued to rise, creating a curtain of its trailing long black hair. Suddenly she was in a partly bombed out theatre looking at a black curtain.

Next to her the crab women were all seated and looking rather serious. When was the show starting? Where did the Emperor disappear to? Yava felt that she had missed an important opportunity.

Just then the curtains split a bit and a Tyranid head peeked out. It stuck out its tongue at her, eyes twinkling with mischief. Right, this wasn't the dangerous type of Tyranid. Wait- what? Not dangerous? Is that even a thing? It withdrew back and the black curtains remained shut. When was the show starting? This was taking forever.

–o–

Yava woke up surrounded by familiar smells, sounds, and sights. The air was dank and oily. Low creaks and periodical thumps rumbled through the surrounding bulkheads. Every surface was covered in multiple layers of drab olive paint, with corrosion winning the battle. She was in the austere crew quarters of an Imperial ship.

Next to her bunk stood a servitor – perhaps once a woman – its actuators periodically whirring to keep it upright. Seeing her awake it chattered something in binary and promptly exited quarters, one mechanical peg-leg clunking against the deck. An armed guard then peeked inside as if to confirm something before quickly and wordlessly disappearing out of view, apparently triggering the door governor to trap her.

She was alone.

That had been such a long dream. How long had she been asleep for? It might be a while before she could sort her head out given the jumbled mess of surreal events... dreams or not. Somehow she felt really good though.

–o–

The Lord-Captain Antonius sat stooped over an ancient burrwood desk in his personal quarters on board the Ventrix Profundis. Parchments littered its surface. Most pertained to salvage rights. In case of contention having variants already prepared for each type of scenario was standard caution.

Progress had been slow with all the debris and unusual circumstances so the Ventrix Profundis still lazily orbited Luctatio II. In the past four months the world had somehow gotten greener and Antonius was expecting to see the survey team's full report any day now. The fairy had seemed protective of the world, and given the powers it had demonstrated he didn't dare to be too intrusive. He was sure an inquisitor would have been though. Fortunately there were none aboard for this trip – he had seen to it.

Aside from the debris and wreck of the cruiser Yarrexon, Antonius had likely gotten at least partial salvage rights on the stray frigate Malorant as well. After a failed boarding attempt of a Tyranid synapse bioship the frigate withdrew from the area, but then its damaged engines gave out and the machine spirit of the enginearium quieted. The voidship's Master of Whispers, Confessors and Stewards just about managed to suppress a violent riot as life support rations dwindled. Only 8000 crew out of the 24000 standard compliment remained after the entire ordeal.

The servitors, slaves and basic enlisted were of course all entirely ignorant of recent events, and the main bridge had been lost along with its high ranking officers, scribes and logs. However, according to a few surviving low ranking officers the voidship had engaged a Tyranid fleet along with the cruiser Yarrexon. Troops had been dropped planetside to reinforce local Imperial Guard forces being overrun by Tyranids. Luctatio II was soon deemed a lost cause and the Malorant deployed its Cyclonic Torpedoes.

Had they failed, or did the torpedoes in fact carry a different payload? The planet was certainly barren but it didn't looked devastated and there were no traces of ruins or even a battle. The fairy had mentioned something about restoring a broken world, but in spite of evidence that didn't seem achievable – terraforming is a process which takes millennia.

As for the Fairy... well, it had abruptly disappeared soon after the initial trade. According to cogitator analysis run by the Master of the Vox, the communication had come from a smaller Imperial ship hidden in the debris field, perhaps a lander of some sort, though none could be found in the vicinity.

Then there was the report of the three stowaways which were found aboard the Ventrix Profundis a few months back. A strange unresponsive state of hibernation hindered interrogation. Remarkably one of them was a Space Marine. This made Antonius wary. Hopefully it would remain indisposed and not cause trouble.

The holy sword was now locked in the ship's vault. As to its origins, perhaps they would have to modify the truth a bit. Getting it in trade for a few books... too mundane and unbelievable. It was most unfortunate that the fairy had not returned. The chance to resume trade with it was partly the reason why Antonius had risked lingering for so long in an area with Tyranid activity.

Suddenly a cabin boy knocked and entered unprompted.

"What it is now Charios?", the Lord-Captain asked absentmindedly, at first not looking up.

"Lord-Captain, two of them are awake!"