Part 26

Though I’d had the Nine with me for only days, it was strangely lonely once they had all left save Naryssa.

Laena went west with Kaeliss to the kingdom of her father. It was weeks on foot, then surely persuading the king would take some time. Months would pass before they were heard from again if all went well.

Veros and Jakera went east to their homes, to the underworlds they knew so well. Convincing or intimidating the hundreds of gangs there to our cause would be the work of months or a year, and they were to await the arrival of our army before rising up. Theirs was a dangerous task, and one long in the undertaking.

Boestro and Pael would be seen further in the future still. Their journey to the many island nations would be accelerated aboard their ships, but those they reached for were more scattered than any other. Years would pass before they were ready.

I was actually glad that Mordred’s task might prove actively impossible. If any group was to meet our message with violence instead of patience, it was the wildmen of the north. I expected to either eventually discover him dead when we reached those lands, or for him to be battling his kin for years to come.

For now, it was just Naryssa, Shiss’kill, and myself. It was our task to gather those of the plains to us. It would be the work of weeks to even contact them all, much less to sway them to gather as an army. Still, once they were gathered and joined by the army from the west, the eastern cities would fall in short order, sabotaged from within if they didn’t come willingly. The northern barbarians would eventually fall in line, whether Mordred won them over or the army did. Then they would have to spread to the islands, across the oceans, over all of Latigia IV.

None of this fazed me. I’d known that the truth would spread to all of my people through my lips from the moment I gazed across the Basilica Exsolutus. What I didn’t realize then, and was only realizing now, was that the Word would not be halted there.

My tongue would speak the word of Chaos among the stars. I just had no idea how we’d get there.

The gods would provide. They had so far. The existence of the Nine prior to my rising proved that this was no whim, but a work long in the making. When the time came for my influence to spread beyond the world of my birth, they would see to what I could not.

“It will be fine. The gods have willed this.” Naryssa spoke from behind. I spun in place, startled, for I had not spoken my thoughts aloud. It was still strange to be back in one of the tents that housed my former tribe. I thought I’d never see the inside of one again just a couple of weeks ago, and yet here I was.

“I am entirely certain in my faith and the path laid before me.”

Naryssa snorted. “Such bullshit sentiment is the tripe of the Amorok. We have come to Chaos by questioning what we were taught, and being told to fall in line time and again. They do not resent us our doubt so long as the end result is faith.”

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I sighed, standing, gazing levelly at the woman I was quickly considering a true sister, my temper reined in with some effort. “You might have questioned and been found wanting, but I believed until the day my words shackled those around me for the first time. I did not stray from the Amorok, I was tossed out on my ear.”

Naryssa didn’t miss a beat, her dazzling smile only widening. “Then be grateful that not all twists of your fate are yours to spin. Tzeentch has guided you.”

I gave her a wry grin. “And here I thought you were a devoted follower of Nurgle and Khorne.”

Naryssa shrugged. “All I had been taught before this day was their rivalries, and Khorne and Nurgle both had granted me great favor. I thanked them with worship, and they told me I would be called by another one day. When I heard your call, I came, and when I heard your words of unity, I felt the truth in them. Never before had Chaos Undivided been whispered in my ear. My mind has changed. I do call a Slaanesh devotee sister after all.”

“It was the start of my path, not the end.” I replied quietly. It was strange to have been ushered to a place where I called all four gods my patron, yet to not hold up the one who did the guiding over all others. Such an act would go against the truth, yet at times I felt ungrateful.

“Slaanesh knew where you would end up when he sent me to you.” an airy and melodic voice called, Shiss’kill ducking through the tent flaps. The first time we’d met had been in my own tent, and then she’d barely taken up any of it at all. Now, she towered so her horns scraped at the very apex. Her imposing form was alluring as it was terrifying, surely something that would be an asset in the coming days. “You were not meant to be His alone. You are a servant of Chaos in all of its many forms. Not only does he approve of that, he has no sway over it. The tides of fate pull you onward and I am merely your guide, not your shepherd.”

“A guide, not a shepherd.” I muttered, rolling the words over my tongue, the idea settling upon my mind. “I like it. Perhaps you are right Shiss, Naryssa. Perhaps preaching unity is not doing my first lord a disservice.”

“There are others whose words match your own.” Shiss’kill encouraged, turning her eyes to the sky overhead, visible through the smoke flap. “Those who preach the spreading of the word, the unification of the Truth. Their beliefs are often more violent, more zealous than your own, but their hearts are as true.”

I recoiled. “If they preach the death of those who do not believe but do not resist, then I don’t see how I can reconcile myself to them.”

“You will need to find out. They will come, those who were once heralds. I fear that you will find a shortage of those willing to let you peacefully teach among the stars. There, it is either with us or against us, on all sides. In time, perhaps your own morals will corrode.” She shrugged at the horrifying possibility, even as I boiled with rage at the concept.

I stilled, my soul calmed and became steel. “Never.” I whispered. I promised. I swore.

If they listened they would live.

If they stood aside, they would be allowed to persist in folly.

Only those who tried to silence the Truth would pay with death.

My smile returned, though it was not a kind one. I could tell because the nine foot demon drew back slightly when I turned it to her. Obsidian blade in hand, armored skin unblemished thanks to my unnatural healing, my shackle breaking words holstered upon my tongue, I knew that my mission was truer than any that these heralds pursued. And I repeated my vow.

“Never.”