Vex Chronicles 3: Hunt

Epilogue

Dark eldar ship

"Hypocrites," Vraesha spoke with metallic lips. "Everyone that goes to war for personal gain is doomed to fall."

Vraesha looked at her metallic arms. The thirst was gone. Vraesha no longer needed pain to prolong her life. She had made herself eternal. She-who-thirsts would not claim her soul. It felt... refreshing. It felt liberating. But it felt so... alienating as well. And was the price worth it?

Armegore, Cubbrath and Dayzhek. Three powerful warriors lost to a raid that had failed on the finish line. Vraesha looked at the other survivors of her mechanized wracks. Many of them had diminished in mind. Her bodyguards were nothing more than twitching madmen, ready to cut everything to pieces. It was as if all that remained from their personality was their loyalty to the haemonculus.

And how much had Vraesha changed? How much of her had survived the process? Her will to see her goals fulfilled was still burning strong. And with it burnt the rage of the failure. The machines to recreate her ascension of metal were lost.

But it wasn't only a loss. In exchange she had gained all the time of the world to find new ways to trick she-who-thirsts. After such a painful blow, many of her kind would have fallen to a petty revenge scheme. But she was beyond that. Yes, her mind had been strong enough to survive the process. She was now sure of it.

Schemes of revenge and intrigues were just a means to an end, not a goal in of itself. The others in her haemonculus coven had never understood her. They all were lost to egoistic goals. And even those that had worked alongside her for the betterment of their species had done so for their own twisted goals. But Vraesha was still – and had always – been different. She had been called weak, she had been called misguided. But she had crushed everyone that had spoken up against her. And now it was time for a new path, a new future – her future.

Aes Cognis, medical bay

"That is all I could do."

Sanriza just stared at Dr DeLague and nodded. She had no energy to do more.

"I couldn't remove all of those... nerve ports. Some were too deeply entwined with your nerve system. Removal would cause permanent injury. All I could do was seal them."

Sanriza again nodded.

"And like with your nose I had to use a metal plate to repair your jaw. Speaking will be painful. It will get better. But if you need medication against the pain..." Dr DeLague pressed a bottle of pills into Sanriza's hands.

Sanriza again only nodded. It wasn't the bodily pain. She had learned to live with it. It was the pain of her mind – the memories.

Sanriza walked out of the medbay and towards her quarter. Everything in her ached. Every shadow was a danger. But it was also her blanket, her safe haven. Sanriza's hands were shacking when she had finally made it back. But even her quarter no longer felt safe. The voices of the tortured and murdered were everywhere. And the ice in her heart was nearly a bodily pain.

Sanriza's glance fell onto the bundle of cloth. And she reached out to it. She couldn't even say what rode her as she begun to slip back into them. The dark eldar bodyglove sat tight. It was as if it wanted to highlight every scar, every nerve implant and the ruin that was her left breast. But somehow it was safety.

When Feh walked in, she found Sanriza cowering in the darkest corner, rolled together in a ball.

Sanriza stared at the other black clad woman with eyes of fear and pain. "Will... will it ever stop hurting?"