//------------------------------// // 2.16- Cegorach // Story: The Empress Returns // by iowaforever //------------------------------// Cegorach Stepping into the Black Library was an experience that few had witnessed, and even fewer had lived to tell about. The psychic field that surrounded the dark Craftworld was powerful enough to repel any and all that it deemed unworthy, those still corruptible by the Chaos that resided within them. Those that did make it through, supposedly, were challenged and questioned by the guardians within, to prove themselves worthy of the knowledge that resided within the vaults of the Eldar. That challenge, Celestia now faced. Wind lashed as Celestia’s hair as she found herself standing on a snow-swept cliff side. In the dark she could see currents of snow whipping through the mountains around her, an intricate dance that would have captivated her if her mission was not so pressing. Faintly she thought she could see small motes of light from towns and other settlements, but passed it off as a mere trick of the light. Her armor was gone. Instead Celestia found herself dressed in a grey cloak and hood, a weathered stave clutched in her right hand. A psychic trick, no doubt, but even as she probed further she could not find a means to dispel the illusion... yet. As she looked around for a meaning behind the change, her eyes fell upon a domed building at the top of this particular peak. No... He is taunting me. Celestia reached further, trying to dispel the illusion and return her vision to normal. But nothing seemed to connect, and all she was left with was an image of the Church of the Lightning Stone, as battered and worn as the day she burned it down millennia ago. She tried again to reach for the building, only for something to push her powers back into her soul. “If you wish to see what you want, you will have to confess before the altar,” the voice of Cegorach whispered, twisting around her and up towards the damned church. “If you seek to break me by reviving moments from my past, you would not be the first to try.” Celestia countered, tugging at her cloak as she made her way towards the church. “It is hard to break something that was never rebuilt in the first place, isn’t it?” Celestia did not bother to answer. Under normal circumstances she would strike the creature and be on her way, but this was Cegorach’s realm... and she needed his help, as much as the idea tasted bitter in her mouth. So she did what she could, clutching her stave and starting towards the church. Perhaps in the past, she could find answers for the future. The trek up to the church was just as easy as she remembered, even when she was unarmored and alone. Doffing the hood, Celestia pushed the door open with her free hand, a blast of warm air greeting her as she stepped inside. The interior was just as she remembered it: worn rows of pews leading up to the altar, modest pillars supporting the dome while a glorious fresco of her defeating the Void Dragon peered down on those who would gather below. And lounging before the altar, a curved sword in one hand and a marionette of a Chaos Lord in the other, was the Laughing God of the Eldar. “Do you know what one of the funniest jokes your kind has told is?” he asked, idly flicking his fingers about to make the marionette dance. “I did not know you took stock in our kind of humor, as sparse as it is these days,” Celestia said as she closed the door behind her. This merely caused the Laughing God to live up to his name. “Ah, this is a very old joke. I think you will find it most amusing.” Cegorach paid no attention to her, continuing to let the Chaos Lord dance. “A puppet dances upon a string, to tunes that he will never hear. He looks upon himself and says ‘I am a puppet, and I see my strings. I understand I am pulled by fate, and resign myself to dance forevermore’.” the Eldar God cackled, all but tossing the marionette into the air. Celestia merely frowned. “I do not see what’s so funny about that,” Celestia said, crossing her arms over her chest as Cegorach continued to laugh. “So narrow a thought in someone that claims to know all,” Cegorach replied, finally looking to Celestia through his mask. “The puppet sees the strings and concludes that is the extent of his understanding. Merely the fact that he dances vindicates his actions and his wills, and thus makes him conclude there is nothing he can do to move beyond.” the actions of the marionette became more frantic, ducking and diving as if it were in actual combat. “What does he know of the music, or the hand that directs his movements?” Cegorach continued. “Does he know or care to know about the patrons, the lord who commissioned his dance, or the craftsman who carved his face? Of course not. By seeing only strings he sees his actions are guided, but he is too clever and self-focused to wonder who is behind the hand, or why he dances upon such strings.” a pause, the marionette falling still as the Laughing God leered up at Celestia. “Do you know what happens to puppets that see only the strings?” “Enlighten me.” there was a flash, Cegorach lashing out with the sword to cleave the head from the marionette, the Chaos Lord slumping over in death. “Silly Emperor,” the Laughing God said, Celestia certain the grin on his mask grew wider. “You should know better than to ask questions that you already know the answers to.” he tossed the marionette and the sword aside before rolling up to his feet and staring down at Celestia. “Now, perhaps you have questions you do need answers to.” “I came here for your assistance, not riddles,” Celestia said, setting her stave on a nearby pew. “My people are assaulted by the Powers of Chaos, and as painful as it is for me to say this I cannot stand against them alone.” “You seem to be doing fine right now.” the Eldar God countered. “Letting a portion of my fleet die and watching Cadia burn does not strike me as ‘fine’.” Celestia snapped. “This Dark God tests my power at every turn, yet is too much of a coward to face me directly. Much like you he lurks in the shadows, taunting and manipulating but deigning to strike me directly.” “As your fears do,” Celestia blinked as the scene around her changed. The Church of the Lightning Stone vanished, replaced by the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit during that fateful battle over Terra. She saw Horus’ legions and her Companions locked in battle, frozen at the moment of time when Humanity’s destiny hung in the balance. “I both envy and pity humans, Emperor. I envy that you are so confident in your abilities that you can charge forward into perilous situations with a smile, yet I pity you that you are slaves to such desires to break and resolve everything, even if it is not yours to confront.” “Just as your kind spawned Slaanesh?” Celestia asked, stepping around the image of a Traitor Marine falling to the Guardian Spear of a Custode. “But perhaps more so,” Cegorach countered, his voice drifting around Celestia as she walked further into the Vengeful Spirit. Ahead she could see the spot where she and Horus dueled, only to find the Laughing God had dismissed that image for one of him lounging upon a golden throne. “All mortals hold the idea that they are masters of their fate, and so charge ahead to their doom. The Eldar saw where that led them and fractured, but in the end pursued the same doom as they had before: some returned to debauchery, others chose martyrdom to strike down She Who Thirsts.” “And the Dark God beat them to the punch,” Celestia said as Cegorach faded from view, the image of Horus and her past self battling to the death returning to its place. “I would think you would be proud of Slaanesh’s death. The Eldar are now free of its control and can, perhaps, reclaim some of their dignity.” “Perhaps, but what good is the death of a wolf when you must now face the lion that killed it?” Celestia felt the Laughing God circling her, but unlike her verbal duels with the Dark God she felt no need to raise her guard any further than it already was. “I would have found a means to kill it and be done with it, but perhaps I dance upon strings of my own... as do you.” “I have no faith in gods or plans, Cegorach,” Celestia stopped walking, averting her gaze so she would not have to look upon the crumpled form of Sanguinius. “The spirit of humanity is one that defies all that try to dampen it, to direct it down paths contrary to its growth.” “Are you sure of that?” the Laughing God cackled again, his voice echoing through the halls of the Vengeful Spirit. “The last fifteen thousand years have taught you nothing, have they? Or is the carnage we stand in now merely a defiance of what was to come?” Celestia hesitated, looking around at the images of the end of the Heresy. “... No,” she said, hanging her head. “I was too bull-headed to realize that perhaps things were not within my control. That my favored son could betray me.” she sighed. “I am not proud with what Humanity has become, but it has endured in its own way... that’s about all I can ask for right now.” “For one beholden to the concept of Humanity, it took you some time to understand the Truth of Humanity,” Celestia was now standing before the Golden Throne, Cegorach seated where she would have been. “You see the strings and presume that is what Humanity is, that it is something you can control and impose your order. But your own people are the ones who make you dance, for one reason or another. That is the reality that I have faced, only now I see beyond the strings.” the Eldar god cocked his head to one side. “Do you?” “... I do not want to.” Celestia countered after a pause. “I am no god, just a very powerful human in a position of lordship. The humans call me God Empress, and I suppose I play the role that they might have something to believe in beyond superstitions or worse. But in my mind I know the truth, and if I am a puppet as you say, it is merely the role I dance to rather than the one I accept.” “Which is?” Celestia said nothing, looking away from Cegorach for a moment as she mulled over his question. Fortunately for her the Laughing God did not seem eager to force the point, or perhaps he already knew what her answer would be and merely wanted to string her along. “You have no answer, do you?” Cegorach asked. “I am not surprised. Many do not have such answers, or merely delude themselves into thinking it is something beyond what they are meant for.” “If you merely wished to psychoanalyze me, I believe you could have done so without bringing me here.” Celestia took a step towards Cegorach, raising her head to meet the Eldar god’s face. “Perhaps you would answer a question that I don’t know the answer to: who is the Dark God?” “Are you sure you do not know the answer?” Cegorach replied. Celestia’s jaw clenched as she glared at the Laughing God, to which the Eldar replied with a shrug. “The Dark God is everything you despise. If that answer does not terrify you, then you are a greater fool than I.” “I do not suppose you could give me more specifics?” “My duty is to reveal the path by which the truth can be found. If you cannot figure the answer out for yourself, you are truly lost.” Celestia’s jaw tightened further. Obviously the Eldar would not give her a straight answer, and sussing out what the creature meant would take time that she could not spare... “Pure Chaos stands in ascendancy,” she said. “Every vice, corruption, time of loathing, all made manifest and spearheaded by my wayward sons. My sins lay bare before me, and I am only beginning to make up for the wrongs I have inflicted.” she looked to the Laughing God. “If the Dark God is all I despise, I have no reservations of bringing my power against it. The question I have is whether you do or not.” “Movements are being made that you cannot perceive, actions taken that will see friend and foe torn asunder.” the area around them had shifted once more, only now Celestia found herself standing in familiar territory: a dark Craftworld surrounded in the low light of the Webway, a number of Harlequins peering down through the Wraithbone spires at the Lord of Humanity and their patron deity. Behind the Eldar god Celestia could see a low Wraithbone arch, before which stood a number of Eldar dressed in black hooded cloaks and horned masks, all of them looking at her with dead eyes. “The question you must ask is how much further you are willing to go for those you would consider friends. Merely expending your energy... death?” “You know my answer.” Celestia said, her hand falling to her sword now that it and her armor had been returned to her. “I have given myself freely to the service of Mankind. I have borne its weight upon my shoulders time and time again. What is one more time, if it sees Chaos undone and Mankind freed of its tormentors?” there was a pause, the Eldar regarding her before Cegorach chuckled. “Well, it looks as though this puppet may see the hand it dances to.” Celestia remained silent as the Laughing God turned towards the arch. “Pass through the gate and you will find all the knowledge you need. From there, you will make haste to Commorragh, for an item of great value to you or your enemy rests within its cages. My children shall show you the way.” “Commorragh,” Celestia repeated. “What relic will be waiting there?” “Again asking questions you already know the answer to? You need only think deeper on what lies within the Dark City.” the Eldar god stepped away. “Now go, for the hour draws near when you will be tested further than you have ever been. Remember, your enemy is closer than you can imagine, and you must face it before you are to achieve all you desire.” Celestia stepped forward, not even bothering with a response to statements she already knew to be true. The Solitaires stepped through the arch, disappearing into the gloom as she stepped forward. She would have continued if Cegorach did not speak again. “One more thing,” the Laughing God said. “I don’t suppose you heard more of the prophecy concerning the Dark God.” “I have heard enough,” Celestia said. “The Game is Broken, only Destruction remains.” “Ah, but there is more to it than that, and you know it,” Cegorach did not draw closer, but Celestia could feel his presence looming over her. “The Great Game is Broken, Old Gods cast aside. Only Destruction remains for the Ruler of Mankind has died.” Celestia’s jaw tightened again, her hand flexing ever so slightly. She waited for something more, perhaps some comment from the Eldar she could retort to, but nothing was forthcoming. “I have heard many prophecies about my death, Cegorach,” she said. “That will not stop me from doing what is needed.” “No doubt.” Celestia turned forward, stepping into the arch of the Black Library and disappearing from Cegorach’s sight. ... He stood quietly, watching as the Empress disappeared from his view. He could still sense her, delving deeper into the halls of the Black Library for the knowledge she sought... knowledge that rested within her already. Still, the tools she would find would, perhaps, help her on her way, but it was not for him to point her directly to the answer. Where was the fun in that? “Why do you feel the need to lie to her?” a soft voice said from behind him. Cegorach did not turn, but he knew who stood behind him: an Eldar maiden, dressed in flowing green and white robes, her two-toned black and blond hair held back by a prim braid. “Lie?” Cegorach answered. “My dear Isha, I did not lie to her. I merely told her what she wished to hear, and what she needed to hear. To say I lied to her is to twist my words further.” “Humanity is our last hope, Cegorach,” Isha countered. “Our strength may be growing once more, but it will never be as it once was. You know as well as I do it will be Man, not the Eldar, that plunges the dagger into Chaos’ heart once and for all. So why do you hide information that will hasten such matters?” “Because she will not accept it, Isha,” Now Cegorach turned to his fellow god. “The knowledge we hold will be the undoing of Chaos and the doom of the Dark God, but if the Empress learns of it her well-meaning actions will snuff the spark before it has a chance to grow into the fire that destroys the Great Enemy. You know the prophecy as well as I do.” “As I whispered the portents as the Changer of Ways fell, I know it well.” Isha twisted her hand, revealing a purple clad woman standing before a red-skinned giant. “Though day breaks in the darkest of tides, not all portents bode ill. For the final doom of Chaos resides in the Twilight Maiden from Ponyville.”