A Light Not Extinguished

Interregnum: Second Strongest Human

Kathicia was daydreaming in her room when the stranger came.

It appeared without a sound, sitting on the floor. The stranger wore a set of simple robes that were made of reflective black silk, or at least something close to it— it glimmered in a way that no human synth-silk ever could.

"Hello!" Five-year-old Kathicia Jorenn tugged at the stranger's robes, floating midair as strong psyker children tended to do. "Are you mommy's friend?"

The figure looked down at her. It didn't speak.

"And what's wrong with your face?" Kathicia pointed at the figure's face, which had no features— or more accurately, it had features, but when they were viewed they simply slipped from memory, giving off the impression of a constantly shifting mosaic like a rippling oil slick. "It's all... fuzzy!" She poked the stranger's face. It didn't react to the touch, merely looking at Kathicia.

"Oh wait, you're a stranger!" The child chirped. "Mommy says I shouldn't be alone with strangers." She took a deep breath. +Mommy!+

The shout was both as loud as a six-year-old's lungs could muster, and laced with all the telepathic force of a nascent Alpha-Plus psyker. It was not long before quick steps sounded outside the door and Kathicia's mother stepped into the room.

Aliea Jorenn, famous historian, beta-class psyker and mother, carried herself with the poise of those who were accustomed to power. She didn't blink at the pile of four-dimensional hypercubes stacked up in the corner that Kathicia liked to create and play with when she was idle, or the arrangement of tiny sapphire golems holding a party on a table. "Honey? What's wrong?"

"Someone's in the room!" Kathicia pointed at where the stranger was sitting. "They don't have a face!"

Aliea's expression immediately turned stony. One telekinetic pull and Kathicia was yanked into the hold of her left arms. "Show yourself." She barked at the space Kathicia pointed to as a stream of blue fire burst forth from her right arm.

It didn't even react at all, letting the flames pass right through it. Its head was still unerringly looking at Kathicia. Aliea's gaze sharpened, her psychic senses reaching out, probing.

After a while, Aliea looked at her daughter. "Honey, are you sure? There's no one here at all."

Kathicia shook her head. "I'm not lying mom!"

Aliea sighed. "Honey, you said there was a ghost in the living room this week too. Have you been taking your medicine?" Kupmann's syndrome was very common among psyker children of higher grades— increased sensitivity to the Warp resulted in vivid hallucinations.

"I'm not lying!" Kathicia insisted, face scrunched up in the way children do before they started to cry. "It's there!"

"Alright, alright." Her mother changed the subject, setting Kathicia down. "I'll take a few more looks, okay? Go and watch some holoshows."

As Kathicia trotted out of the room, she took one last look back. The stranger returned the gaze.

She stuck her tongue out. It continued to stare until she left the room.

***

She was twenty-seven, and she had won a great victory.

Kathicia Jorenn descended from high above the battlefield, the inert bodies of thousands of Chaos Androids lying at her feet. +It's alright, everyone.+ She flashed a comforting smile. +I'm here now.+ The Saae-Hyum States had been embroiled in a machine uprising for years, all because a band of cultists had managed to pour a psychic virus into the governing intelligence that had made their nation so strong. For years and years machine had fought man, and despite the aid from neighbouring polities it still wasn't enough.

But then she arrived. They called her the Wayfarer, the hero that walked among the stars dispensing justice to all. The one who broke the Hordes of Kelerat, and scattered the Nine Lords of Zayth to the wind. No mere metal intelligence could ever hope to overcome her.

+This is only the first victory!+ Kathicia shouted. +We break its shells now, and soon we will burn the foundries to the ground! And after that—+ she pointed east, +The place where it calls home!+

She luxuriated in the cheering and shouts that came after. Playing the hero came with its perks, after all. And what's wrong with a little praise? She was strong. She might even be the only one to truly deserve it, because she was the strongest. She drank in the adulation, the jubilant faces of the soldiers whose calls for a saviour had finally been answered.

And then she saw a figure in the crowd that did not belong. She took a step forward. +Stop.+

Time froze, and the psyker teleported in front of the faceless being that had appeared once before in her youth, its presence completely ignored by all other humans. "You. I remember you. What are you doing here?" She hissed. "I won't let you hurt them, daemon!"

The figure looked at her and spoke for the first time, in a toneless cadence neither male or female. "I am no daemon. At this moment, I am but an assessor." It ignored the time lock like it never existed at all.

"Liar, like all the rest of them. Are you one of Tzeentch's?" The psyker spat. "Save your breath. I'll beat it out of you soon enough." Space folded and twisted around the stranger in ways meant to strip flesh from bone and drag blood out of the body.

It slid off the figure like rain on glass. Kathicia frowned. Telekinetic force followed, strong enough to flatten adamantium blocks while twin beams of Warp-plasma burst forward from the human's eyes. Both of those attacks simply ceased to be when they touched the stranger's robes.

The figure tilted its head. "Are you finished?"

Kathicia's face reddened. "Shut the hell up!" The sky above began to darken, lightning flashing across the skies. "I'll blast your fucking head off—"

There was a sound like the pealing of bells crossed with the scream of a lizard, and then the time lock broke. The power Kathicia was gathering in the sky was blown away, dissipating in the wind. The stranger stood there as the crowd of soldiers murmured in surprise, Kathicia having suddenly teleported into their midst from their perspective. "You have much to learn still." was all the figure said, before it popped out of existence.

Kathicia Jorenn was left standing amidst a confused crowd of soldiers, with a snarl on her face and crushed pride. It was something she would remember.