Thanquol snarled, lashing out with all the skill and power of a true skaven warrior. This was unacceptable treatment for so grand a personage! He struck the yellow-furred beast again and again, unrelenting in his fury.
Sighing, Fluttershy ignored her patient’s feeble attempts to ward her off. How he had managed to hit Angel Bunny so far she could only attribute to adrenaline or such a thing. “I need to change your bandages. Please? I would never forgive myself if you got an infection.” She gave him a gentle, calm smile.
His muzzle scrunched up as he studied the dumbly smilingly animal. At last he nodded in assent. “Be quick-fast, pony-thing.” Thanquol ordered with a negligent flap of a paw. It simply would not do for him to be laid low by the onset of a disease, after all.
The beast had some medical knowledge and hardly made a sound when he beat it. Perhaps he would not eat it quite yet.
Happy at his agreement Fluttershy quickly set about changing the once-white bandages. She frowned at how dirty they had become in so short a time. Murmuring reassurances to him she began her work.
The Grey Seer hissed and tried to jerk away when Fluttershy applied rubbing alcohol only to find her hooves surprisingly hard to remove. His physical weakness would be a problem, Thanquol realised sourly. Normally he could compensate through displays of his supreme magical might but he still lacked any of his usual reserves. Not to mention how little power his warpstone was providing. It disturbed him. and that in turn made him want to make something suffer. If Thanquol had to suffer it was only right that everyone else did too.
He would, he decided unhappily, need to ‘befriend’ the beast. Lure it into thinking he wished to be an equal partner in an alliance, a trusted colleague who would keep its trust.
The thought of lowering himself to allying with ‘Fluttershy’ rather than enslaving it made him want to retch. Though he was loathe to admit it his continued lack of power meant it was his only option.
Rage gripped Thanquol at the indignity of it all but he swallowed the feeling with some effort. Despite his incredible self-control his paw shook with suppressed emotion. Or maybe he needed another pinch of warpstone snuff. Just a pinch, to settle his nerves. Unlike other idiots he was not an addict. Thanquol had far too much self-control and willpower to let any substance control him. He staved this off until the pony-thing had gone to get him ‘some lovely carrot soup’. The shaking was obviously just from his anger. Clearly.
Humming as she began to prepare the meal, Fluttershy had no idea the paranoid fit now gripping her patient, all due to her kindness.
‘What does it want?’ Thanquol tapped his fingers rapidly against his snout. ‘The pony-thing must have some other motive beyond serving so august a master as I. But it is foolish to believe it can conceal its true intent from the Horned Rat’s prophet!’
Another concern was his location. His injuries and understandable need to calm his nerves with warpstone had let him push that matter largely into the back of his mind until now. Clearly he was on the surface and some place rich in plant and animal life. Though they hid he could smell that a vast number of lesser creatures common among forests were usually filling the pony-thing’s hovel.
Fear threatened to spill into his mind. The Under-Empire spanned the entire world and he had never heard of the like of the pony-thing. The human nation of Bretonnia was said to posses winged horses capable of flying. Was the pony-thing a related breed somehow granted sentience – however feeble compared to true skaven thought – and the ability to talk through mutation or magic?
Thinking of magic Thanquol reached out with his arcane senses. The usually heavy tides of aethyric power that normally danced tantalisingly at the edge of his perception was gone. Instead of flooding in when he opened his mind and reached for it he found noth-
There! Something had touched his mind for the briefest of moments but then flittered away. There was magic here! Thanquol’s mind worked furiously. The winds of magic touched all places, from Cathay to Araby to Reiksland yet here he could feel nothing of it. Almost, he mused, as though Chaos had no power here.
The notion was ridiculous, of course. Perhaps some kind of filter? Dwarf rune-magic worked without a trace of Chaos or the Warp, the ultimate blasphemy. He could easily imagine the stupid dwarfs believing they could blunt the power of the Horned Rat and the other Chaos powers by attempting to prevent it from reaching certain places. But even as he considered the idea he dismissed it. To do so would require every rune-smith in existence and by all accounts only a Master Rune could be strong enough to achieve such a total effect. Master Runes took decades of work by a single Master Rune-Smith to produce. It was, he concluded, technically or theoretically possible but not in the slight practically.
Gnawing on his tail absentmindedly Thanquol ran through every possibility, likely or not. There weren’t many. Even the magic of the elf-things wasn’t this pure, only dwarf runes and Old One relics could approach it.
His ears twitched at a knock at the door, nearly inaudible. “Come fast-quick!” he barked. “I desire food now-now!”
Fluttershy entered holding a tray in her mouth, a bowl of soup balanced on it. She smiled around the tray at Thanquol, pleased to see that he was staying in bed like she asked. Noticing the way he shied from looking into the light she made a note to remember to close the curtains. Judging from the poor thing’s eyes he was better suited to the night then sunlight and it probably made him uncomfortable.
She was rather glad he was so...odd, really. She could read his body language to an extent like she could any of her little animal friends and for whatever reason this made him so much easier to deal with than other ponies. The fact he was injured helped a great deal as well. Fluttershy never could resist a creature in need.
He was glaring at her, and she could tell by give-away twitches and fidgets that Thanquol might be angry or upset. It took a lot of effort to keep smiling in the face of a death-glare worthy of Discord.
Placing the tray over his legs Fluttershy tried to ignore how dirty her bed was getting. “Here’s some soup. Its carrot, it’s good. I mean, I think it is. But it’s okay if you don’t like it.” She bit her lip and looked away.
A smile that was more of a smirk curved along Thanquol’s muzzle at its reaction. For all the strength it had shown when it came to his bandages the pony-thing was clearly a naturally subservient beast. Such a trait could be extremely useful and if there were more of its kind...
Lifting the bowl he began to drink from it.
“D-do you like it?” the pony-thing asked in what was obviously hope for approval.
Biting back his urge to throw the soup at it and demand another meal be prepared – not that the soup was bad but because he suspected it would obey – Thanquol was annoyed to find he did actually like it. That rather spoiled things but at least it would serve yet another function.
“Yes-yes, pony-th- erm, Flutershe. Soup is tasty-delicious.” He gave the pony-thing a sincere smile.
Fluttershy tried not to recoil from his rictus grin. “O-oh, that’s wonderful. It’s, um I don’t mean to be rude but its Fl-Fluttershy. My name. It’s...uh...Fluttershy...”
He stared at her. It was unnerving. Putting the now empty bowl down Thanquol let out a gaseous burp. His long tongue darted out and cleaned along his ruined lips. “Yes-yes. Fine-good food, you have my...” was it Fluttershy’s imagination or did his expression become somewhat..darker for a split second. He continued smoothly. “...my thanks. Truly you are a fine cooker, gracious-one.”
She blushed at the praise. “Oh, I’m not all that good. I can do a few things well but nothing compared to my friends Pinkie Pie and Applejack. They’re both wonderful bakers.” Fluttershy scuffed the floor with a hoof.
So there were more! Thanquol was elated by this knowledge. If they were as eager to obey and spineless as this one the possibilities were incredible! He imagined returning to Skavenblight on a palanquin carried by the beasts. The master mutators of Clan Moulder would forget even their animosity – completely undeserved animosity at that – for the chance to acquire some of his stock. An entirely docile sentient creature would provide them with so many options for applications. Granted greater phsycial strength yet retaining their obedient nature and they could be used for all sorts of things from being able to pull carts along the deep highways of the Under-Empire to being used in construction and pulling war engines.
Within a year the Under-Empire would have systems in place as the pony-things became more prevalent. He of course would control the breeders and the supply. Only as patriotic and faithful a servant of the Under-Empire as Thanquol could be trusted with controlling such a powerful tool in the Horned Rats name. Only he was valiant and loyal enough to not misuse the power for his own gains.
A skaven who achieved such a thing would, Thanquol had no doubt, attract many jealous and bitter rivals who would attempt to snuff out his life and end his good work. He would have to hire guards who could be trusted and trained to be alert to even the gutter-slinking assassin-cowards of Clan Eshin. But there were always mistakes, flaws even the most skilled and able servants could not prevent from occurring. Clearly he would need to act first and remove those who would interfere with his plans. The skillful master assassins of Clan Eshin might provide some use there.
Though he did not like to consider it Thanquol knew that it was possible one of the Council of Thirteen, the Lords of Decay, might grow irrationally fearful of him and envious of the obvious brilliance of the humble Grey Seer. Why, even Seerlord Kritislik might fear for his position. And rightful fear it would be if he could not do as a proper skaven did and eliminate rivals before they became a threat.
Once Thanquol was Seerlord he could begin to see the Under-Empire returning to its proper course, to the days when a single great unifier could rally all of skavenkind beneath his banner. The other Lords of Decay would balk at giving any single skaven that power but it was his solemn duty. If they could not find it in their black hearts to trust him, well, Thanquol knew how to deal with heretics. It was about time the blasphemous Clan Pestilens was disciplined. Clan Skryre too, only he could be trusted with arcane wisdom and those loyal to him. Bound by magic to prevent betrayal, obviously, since only a fool would trust another in such a high position.
Taking the bowl back to the kitchen to get her patient seconds, Fluttershy could not help but smile when she heard him laughing. A bit shrill but he seemed so happy.
‘I really should introduce him to the others.’ she thought. ‘Tomorrow is spa day with Rarity and he needs a better clean then I can give him, the poor dear. I don’t know how he turned up here but if there’s anything I can do to help, I have to. He looks like he’s had such a rough life and he might be rude, but all he needs is a little love and affection like any wounded creature.’
Thanquol’s laughter rang out from the small cottage and animals in every direction looked up. Though none had the words to express it, they could all hear the note of madness to the sound.
Fluttershy trotted happily back to her room with another bowl of soup. ‘Yes.’ she decided. ‘I’ll take him tomorrow and maybe Rarity will make him some new clothes.’
The insane laughter cut off as the rat-priest started slurping carrot soup again.
*
Well, I wanted to see how much hypocrisy I could fit into one chapter.
Wonderful news though! In the new small anthology of Gotrek & Felix short stories by various authors one of the stories was about Thanquol! He gets body-swapped with undead-machine Boneripper and how he describes not being able to perceive or use magic in that shell was extremely helpful in writing this. I’ve also started to re-read the Thanquol & Boneripper novel The Temple of the Serpent, which should be a good help with this.
Thoughts on the story so far and how insane Thanquol is? Impressions of him from this chapter are especially welcome. How does all this stuff make you think of him?