A Light Not Extinguished

Chapter 43: Shatterpoint(3)

"Do you think we can find others like ourselves before we die?" Kathicia asked.

World Spirit and Alpha-Plus psyker sat underneath the starry sky on the Antarctic plains, in front of a roaring campfire. The planet was still in a state of festivities; having survived the Second Galactic War by the skin of their teeth, the Federation at this point was still an idea instead of reality.

Gaea turned to face her friend. "But there already are?"

Kathicia sighed. "You know what I meant." The psyker who would become High Marshal in time had a skewer of lamb meat in her hands. "People of our kind that we can have sane, civil conversations with. Your fellow World Spirits are all Aeldari planets who have been long corrupted already. And the less said about the Dark Muses, the better."

"I don't see the need." The World Spirit stared into the flames. "I was there before there were humans, Kathicia. I remember when I was an indescribably tiny thing born from the consciousnesses of the first insects and plants. I have never met another of my kind in all that time."

The psyker bit a chunk off her skewer. "...you don't want to meet another World Spirit at all?"

"I wouldn't be particularly opposed to it." Gaea shrugged. Ever since awakening, the World Spirit had begun to pick up more human mannerisms. "But I've never felt alone in this universe. There are all sorts of interesting things that live on me."

Kathicia finished off her skewer. "Well, good for you then." There was a hint of bitterness in her voice. "Must be nice."

"What's this all about?" Gaea questioned, a shrublike brow furrowed in concern. "I wasn't aware that you wished for a companion."

"I just want to talk to someone that truly understands what my strength is." Kathicia muttered. "They don't get it, Gaea. They don't know what it's like to be able to just vaporize cities with a thought. The weight of that responsibility, of what I'm supposed to do with that power. They don't truly see those awful monsters that occupy the western stars and the evil that has been fermenting in their Empire. The other psykers aren't even aware of how precarious humanity's position is." Her voice grew smaller. "And you're not always around..."

The World Spirit did not think in the way that humans thought. Her mind worked at the glacial pace of centuries, and it was hard for her to grasp all the strange little nuances of human society; furthermore, her consciousness was distributed across the planet for the majority of her lifetime, and the occasions where she manifested an avatar like this were rare and short, outside of times of crisis.

Gaea sighed. For a moment, she wanted to tell the young human the truth— that there was indeed another just like her, stronger than her even. But she had sworn an oath to him to keep his existence a secret, and to break it would have consequences for even her.

"Because she must be allowed to grow into her own person." The golden king had replied to her when she asked him why. "If I were to take her in, my convictions would become her convictions. She would be beholden to me completely." Adam shook his head. "That is not what I want for the girl. She must learn how to stand by herself, accept the lessons that life has to give. It will also be a test for humanity— to see if they are capable of nurturing the talent that I envision for the future, without my interference."

"There will be." She ended up saying to Kathicia. "I have seen more mutations in species than any human mind could ever remember. You being the first means that inevitably another will follow."

"But when?"

"I have seen seas turn to dust. I have watched valleys become mountains. Psychics of your caliber are meant to endure, Kathicia. And nothing is impossible when you have forever."

They would have this conversation again and again as the centuries passed by. Societies rose and fell in their wake, as the psyker's powers became far greater and wondrous than ever before. But still, even as she took command of the Psykana Militant and the legions that protected humanity from the ravages of the Warp, no equal ever appeared to meet her. And so with a resigned heart, she marched to face the only people that could truly contend with her at the end of an era. Aeldari who in a better reality could have salved that loneliness in her heart, now turned rotten and cruel by the absence of their gods.

Could she have been my friend? The psyker wondered as she stared into the bloodlust-ridden eyes of the Red Crone, both of them plunging into the deepest parts of the Warp. Is there even a person left under all this hatred? What have they done to you?

Now, she stared at the great monolith of debauchery that called itself Ynesth. Despite everything, despite all the atrocities and sins that she has committed, the Dark Muse was still revoltingly beautiful; he wore a face of such ruinous beauty that Kathicia faltered for just a moment. Surely such a lovely visage could do no wrong; he would understand, wouldn't he? Kathicia wanted to pour her heart out to the Muse, confess all the worries and fears that she ever had.

Then the illusion passed, and the High Marshal's heart hardened with resolve once more, disgusted at her own weakness. Enough of these childish, selfish desires for companionship. Here, surrounded by burning ships and screaming souls, entombed in a cold shell of metal, there was only duty. And she will not falter, even if she succeeded and ended up alone in this horribly vast galaxy.