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"Kullen, is there anything on Clesus that can help us escape Abaddon's pursuit?"
Back with Horus and Kullen, Kullen asked, puzzled.
Just monts ago, he'd heard the fleet-wide broadcast from the Archmagos. The fleet was abandoning warp travel and heading instead to Clesus, a planet not far from Cadia. Nearly every Astartes, Sister of Battle, and Knight Houses mber aboard the Steel Soul thought the Archmagos had lost his mind.
"Yes."
Kellen had no intention of hiding anything from them. He laid out everything he knew.
"The Aeldari Webway. Follow it, and we can reach Macragge faster than any warp transit."
The Aeldari? Those bean-sprouts?
Kullen shook his head instinctively. Those xenos would actually help them?
"The Imperium has no grounds for negotiation with those treacherous xenos!" he said gravely.
Horus, however, took a mont to think.
The Wolf God knew this ancient race all too well. The prophetic accuracy of these pointy-ears was terrifying. Factor in the current state of the galaxy and everything Kellen had already told them, and the answer practically announced itself.
"They can't hold on anymore. The Great Rift splits the galaxy, the Chaos Gods revel, and the Aeldari face extinction. They desperately need an ally — or rather, bait to draw Chaos fire."
"And they've almost certainly foreseen Guilliman's awakening. As it happens, Roboute is currently the only one capable of steering the Imperium."
Kellen was genuinely impressed. The intellect of a primarch was sothing else. Horus had just guessed exactly what he was about to say. He nodded.
"Well said, my Wolf God. The reason the Aeldari are helping us reach Macragge is precisely to resurrect Guilliman, put him in control of the Imperium, and draw fire away from their own race."
"Hmph. Those xenos are predictably rotten to the core."
Kullen snorted.
Horus, for his part, was unfazed. During the Great Crusade, he had even spared certain xenos, provided they were amicable, unwilling to engage the Expeditionary Fleet, and chose to leave their howorlds of their own accord.
The most classic example was a power called the Interex, a civilization where humans and xenos coexisted. The Wolf God had intended to spare them. But Erebus had other plans. He deliberately provoked a war, and the Interex was ultimately destroyed at the hands of the Sixteenth Legion.
"Do you know which Aeldari faction it is, Kellen? The Harlequins? A Craftworld? The Drukhari?"
"The Ynnari."
Kellen answered.
"The Aeldari have ford a new faction, nad after their god of the dead, Ynnead. Its mbers are drawn from every Aeldari faction. Their goal is to summon Ynnead and destroy the Aeldari's great enemy, the Dark Prince of Pleasure."
Kellen didn't say the na Slaanesh out loud. He wasn't sure what might happen if he did. With the Great Rift now torn open, the forces of Chaos had all gotten a serious power boost.
He himself had no such compunctions, though. Back when he was scavenging in the Underhive, he'd occasionally muttered the nas of the Four Gods and the Emperor of Mankind under his breath, and nothing had ever happened. He'd concluded he was immune to the influence of those foul things. The Emperor excluded, naturally.
Had to be the system's doing.
"The current leader of the Ynnari is a Craftworld Aeldari nad Yvraine. She will help Guilliman truly die."
"Truly die? What does that an?"
"Guilliman is in a poisoned, near-death state. Cawl's power armor apparatus is a primarch life-support system — it keeps him alive, but it can't cure him. So Yvraine, Emissary of Ynnead, must use her special weapon, the Crone Sword, to send Guilliman into true death. That completely suppresses the toxin in his wound. Only then does Cawl's armor actually work."
Suddenly, Kellen rembered that image.
He'd spent enough ti in fan communities, dostic and international, to know that shipping Guilliman and Yvraine was still going strong. Soone had even invented a human-Aeldari hybrid child. Yvraine had apparently earned the title of Imperial Regent's Consort in certain circles.
But honestly, knowing old Thirteen's personality from the lore, if Guilliman found out Yvraine was among those who saved him, there'd be no love-at-first-sight mont. He'd just look at her with a blank face and say:
Oh, thank you, xenos. You may leave now.
Thinking of that, Kellen looked over at Horus and let a mischievous grin spread across his face.
"My Wolf God, hypothetically speaking — if the Aeldari wanted to formalize an alliance with the Imperium, do you think they'd push for a marriage alliance?"
"A marriage alliance? If so, then the candidate would be..."
Horus drew a sharp breath. His expression went pained.
"You can't possibly an Roboute, can you, my friend?"
"Mm-hmm."
"What manner of blasphemy is this..."
The veins on Kullen's forehead were already standing out.
He could not fathom it. Roboute Guilliman, Lord of the Ultramarines, marrying a xenos woman?
And how would a primarch and a xenos woman even produce offspring?!
"Unlikely." Horus let out a laugh. "That boy Roboute wouldn't do it. He might cooperate with xenos, but a marriage alliance? Not a chance."
"Then let ask you this: what if the Emperor of Mankind permitted it?"
"Father..."
Horus went quiet. He quickly arranged his face into sothing between irritation and helplessness and turned to Kellen.
"My friend, why is your head always full of these bizarre ideas? It's fine to say them to us, but if any of this got out, Kullen and I couldn't protect you."
"I only talk like this in front of you two. Haven't you noticed I play the ironclad loyalist in public?"
"Hmph. If I were an Inquisitor, I'd throw you in an interrogation cell and question you for 13 days straight."
Kullen snorted, his contempt for Kellen's self-congratulation plain on his face.
"Hey, don't bark at , Fallen Angel. If I were one of your Chapter's Unforgiven, I'd make you repent every single day. And if you don't care about that, fine, I just won't take you to see the awakened Lion El'Jonson."
Kellen spread his hands, utterly unbothered.
"Kellen!"
Kullen was furious. Or rather, he'd snapped. He rose to his feet, ready to teach Kellen a lesson, but he never actually moved to strike.
Hit him, and the brat might genuinely refuse to take him to see his father.
Don't hit him, and that poisonous mouth would never stop.
The easy, cutting banter between close friends, it was always like this. Watching the scene, Horus found himself thinking of Tarik Torgaddon, quick with a joke and quicker with a laugh, and the other three mbers of the Mournival.
The Wolf God smiled.
---
Just as Kellen had predicted, the mont Cawl's fleet pushed hard toward Clesus, the Chaos fleet swung their guns around and ca charging after them.
But thanks to the advance warning, Cawl's fleet reached Clesus without taking a scratch. Once the transports had ferried Cawl's party and their cargo down to the surface, the fleet turned and left imdiately.
The move ended up saving an entire chanicus fleet for Archmagos Cawl. He understood, without needing it spelled out, that he now owed Kellen a debt.
So during the advance across the surface, the Archmagos ran interference for Kellen and the two figures wrapped in canvas cloaks, Horus and Kullen.
Even though Horus had revealed himself and traded blows with Abaddon, within the current Imperial forces, only Castellan Creed, Archmagos Cawl, and the Living Saint Celestine knew about it.
The other Astartes, Battle Sisters, and Knight Houses mbers in the column never gave the canvas-cloaked "Ogryns" a second glance. All they knew was that sowhere in the recent fighting, a captain nad Kellen and two Ogryns had given the Chaos rebels a thorough beating.
As for what Kellen actually looked like, they'd never seen his face. Recognizing those two "Ogryns" was never going to happen.
➤ Next: Yvraine's Prophecy
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